LIMA (Reuters) -Peru's Congress removed Energy and Mines minister Romulo Mucho from his post on Tuesday as protesters from small-scale miners in the Andean nation camped out at the legislature's building in the capital and intermittently halted traffic throughout the south.
Peruvian small-scale miners - many of whom do not operate with proper permits - have been demanding a two-year extension of a program that allows them to operate temporarily.
Authorities say the program, meant to regularize the artisanal miners, has caused illegal mining to multiply.
In Congress, legislators argued that Mucho had shown a lack of interest and/or ability to solve the issue.
President Dina Boluarte must now accept Congress' decision within 72 hours and appoint a new energy and mines minister, an important position in the world's third-largest copper producer and a sector key to the local economy.
There was no immediate comment from Mucho or Boluarte's office.
Since last week, hundreds of small-scale miners have set up camp in front of Congress, sleeping in tents, to protest the scheduled end of the program that had allowed them to operate, called REINFO. Throughout the south, other protesters set up roadblocks.
REINFO is currently set to expire on Dec. 31 and Mucho's office last week sent a bill to Congress to set a six-month period after that date for all miners to regularize their activities. Artisanal miners were still unhappy with the move, arguing it was not enough time to make their operations legitimate.
REINFO was first created more than a decade ago to formalize small-scale mining, and has been repeatedly extended across several administrations since then.
However, the government alleges that artisanal miners have abused the scheme by mining in prohibited areas or on land owned by third parties.
Illegal mining in Peru is extremely lucrative. In the first 10 months of this year, it brought in $1.1 billion, according to data from the local financial regulator. That would make it even more profitable than drug trafficking, the regulator claims.
Small-scale miners are responsible for about 40% of Peru's gold production, according to government data. Peru produced 99.7 million grams of gold in 2023, a 2.8% year-on-year rise.