ANALYSIS-Miners invest big in Peru, signal end of crisis

Mining companies in resource-rich Peru, buoyed by rising metals prices, are aggressively investing in new mines and confidently betting the global economic crisis is nearly over.

The investments are among the first in the sector since metals prices collapsed last year and show that projects that had been delayed are back on the agenda.

Construction is set to start on Chinalco's $2.2 billion Toromocho copper project next year, while work at Xstrata's $5.1 billion Antapaccay and Las Bambas projects is scheduled to begin in the last quarter of next year and 2011, respectively.

Miners are expected to plow $30 billion in projects over the next eight years, according to Peru's trade ministry, in developments that were on display this week at the 29th biannual Perumin mining convention in Arequipa.

"There is a sense of optimism, a desire to return to work, to restart projects and to mine more," said Hans Flury, president of the National Mining, Petroleum and Energy Society in Peru.

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