Peru is evaluating the authorization of 134 mining exploration and exploitation projects worth an estimated investment of $6 billion, President Dina Boluarte said on Monday, as her government looks to boost revenues from the key industry. Boluarte said in an address to Congress that by the end of this year she expected the formal small-scale mining sector to generate more than $5 billion in annual sales, and that $4.7 billion in formal projects should have started construction by 2026. Officials in Peru, the world's third-biggest copper producer, are currently in talks with informal miners who launched protests late ... (full story)