Peru has just revoked the mining license for Canadian silver miner Bear Creek, who was scheduled to begin production in 2012.
"Some 5,000 protesters, mostly Aymara Indians, have descended on Puno for more than a month to demand concessions be revoked for all mining companies, not just Santa Ana, ostensibly over concerns about potential pollution."
http://af.reuters.com/article/metalsNews/idAFN1E75N0L220110624
AP added some additional information (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jQL_QvB5nTxVB9w3h0tw59JRGIIA?docId=c049714cc952488fb61abbe3f764ef6c)
"Hours after the violence, Deputy Mining Minister Fernando Gala announced that the government had revoked a 2007 decree granting approval to Bear Creek Mining Corp. of Victoria, British Columbia, to mine silver at Santa Ana in Puno. The decree was required because the mine site is within 50 miles of an international border, in this case with Bolivia.
Bear Creek's director, Andrew Swarthout, told The Associated Press that the company had not received formal notification of the decree's revocation.
He said any government attempt to cancel the project would be illegal and amount to "expropriation."
"We followed all the rules. We got public consent. We're in the middle of an environmental impact statement. It was due process. Everything was within the letter of the law," Swarthout said.
The company has said it already spent $96 million on the Santa Ana project.
Swarthout has warned previously that any attempt to end the project would give pause to international investors who have announced their intention to plow more than $40 billion into Peru's mining sector in the coming decade."
So it would appear that the original poster's concerns over government stability with relation to precious metals mining operations are not completely unfounded.
