Formal mining may receive a new stab in Congress this Friday. The Energy and Mines Commission, dominated by the left-wing parties, is preparing another attack against the country’s main source of foreign currency generation.
In a last-minute proposal, Víctor Cutipa, president of this working group and one of the allies of the illegal miners, has presented a new prediction now proposing to extend the validity of the Comprehensive Mining Formalization Registry (Reinfo) until December 31, 2027, that is, not for one year as proposed days ago, but for two more years.
But that’s not all, the initiative, which will be put up for debate in the extraordinary session this Friday, also proposes reincorporating the more than 50 thousand miners who were excluded from Reinfo after the application of Supreme Decree No. 012-2025-EM.
This suspension, according to the document, will apply until the ASM Law and its regulations come into force or until the conclusion of the formalization process, or whichever occurs first.
This prediction unifies four projects to expand the Reinfo, including one from the Socialist bench that proposed extending the registry until December 2030.
CUSTOM CONGRESSMAN
Meanwhile, the groups allied with illegal mining seek to secure their votes and have already added a congressman to their liking: José Arriola, from Podemos Perú, who joins after Somos Perú removed Jorge Morante, a staunch opponent of the extension of Reinfo.
Arriola is a guaranteed vote for mining informality. In November 2024, he presented a project on ancestral mining that was intended to cover up illegal mining and two days later he voted in plenary in favor of extending Reinfo until June 2025.
In April of this year he supported an initiative by Guido Bellido, his colleague on the bench, which sought to declare the creation of the Vice Ministry of Small Mining and Artisanal Mining of public necessity and national interest.
His parliamentary resume also credits him as one of the ‘mochassalidos’ congressmen and one of the 18 legislators involved in the Los Niño case, an investigation for which his home was raided.
Created in December 2016 during the government of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, the Reinfo has been extended four times in the last nine years (May 2019, December 2021, December 2024 and June 2025). Only 2.4% of registered miners managed to be formalized.
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