(Updates with other main points on June production, context)
By Marco Aquino
LIMA, Cuatro Ago (Reuters) – Peru, one of the world’s largest metals exporters, saw its copper, gold and zinc production drop in the first part of 2020, devastated by restrictions placed to curb the coronavirus epidemic, the government said. Tuesday.
The world’s second-largest copper manufacturer said red steel production fell 20.4% in the first part of 2020 with it in 2019.
Gold production also fell by 34.7% in the first six months of the year, while zinc production fell by 23.7%, the country’s Ministry of Energy and Mines reported in a statement.
The Peruvian government decreed about 40 in mid-March with special restrictions on mining activity. The industry, the Andean nation’s key economic engine, began to normalize its operations in May.
The Ministry of Mines reported copper of 180,792 tonnes in June, 40.8% more than last month, as the mines resumed
In June, gold recovered 49.7% to 5,877,891 grams since May; zinc jumped 313.6% to 119,174 tonnes.
Mining accounts for 60% of Peruvian exports. (Report through Marco Aquino; written through Dave Sherwood; edited through Chris Reese and Sandra Maler)
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