Three of the world’s five largest copper mines (Las Bambas, Cerro Verde and Antamina) will be in Peru in 2017, when domestic output will reach 2.5 Mt, reads a recent report in Chile’s Diario Financiero, a business newspaper. Peru’s Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) reported that in November 2015, the latest date for which data is available, copper output reached 1,514,373 t, a volume 19.85% larger than a year earlier.

Peru’s Private Investment Promotion Agency (ProInversión) points out that this output would place Peru close to recovering the second position as copper producer worldwide ahead of China. “This second position may come this year when mega projects such as Las Bambas and the Cerro Verde and Toquepala expansions go on line,” said Director General of Mining at the local Mines Ministry, Marcos Villegas. Fast paced mining, construction and trade industries would be the main drivers of growth of the Peruvian economy in 2016, says the Lima Chamber of Commerce (CCL).