Peru’s state environmental remediation company Activos Mineros (AMSAC) has awarded Public Auction number 001-2026-AMSAC for the Quiulacocha tailings waste site to Québec-based Cerro de Pasco Resources (TSX-V:CDPR) (CPDR).
The award covers the Quiulacocha tailings site and associated surface rights, allowing CPDR to reprocess tailings in the Peruvian Andes to recover remaining metals.
CPDR describes the site as “one of Peru’s largest legacy mining liabilities”.
AMSAC chief executive Dante Aguilar says AMSAC’s main goal is “for the benefits of this transformation to reach the people of Quiulacocha and Cerro de Pasco”.
Under the reprocessing framework, private investment helps fund remediation efforts while assuming assigned contractual risks.
AMSAC expects to receive more than 500 million soles ($207.74 million) in contractual payments over an estimated 21-year operating period, alongside taxes; and a planned 20-million-sol community trust fund.
Combined projected benefits and public savings are estimated to exceed 1 billion soles. A direct state-funded clean-up would have cost roughly 550 million soles.
The project targets silver and base metals alongside critical minerals gallium and indium. In March, the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) agreed to provide up to US$5 million ($7.15 million) in matching funds for early-stage drilling and feasibility work.
The DFC is also evaluating a potential construction loan of up to US$300 million, though the loan has not yet been approved.
Final execution remains subject to definitive contracts with AMSAC, which are expected in the coming days, as well as required environmental permits, guarantees, and potential administrative challenges.
Neither AMSAC nor CDPR has disclosed the waste tonnage, purchase price, or competitor bid figures, and no official mineral resource estimate currently exists under Canada’s NI 43-101 reporting standards.
Cerro de Pasco Resources is focused on developing its 100%-owned El Metalurgista concession in central Peru, which hosts silver-rich tailings and stockpiles accumulated over more than a century of mining.
Write to Paula Fabe at Mining.com.au
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