Peru road blockades hit MMG's Las Bambas copper mine once again

LIMA (Reuters) - A four-day-long blockade in Peru by protesters seeking greater benefits from exploitation of natural resources is disrupting operations of MMG Ltd's Las Bambas copper mine, one of the country's largest, the energy and mines ministry said. Residents of three communities in the Chumbivilcas province of the Andean region of Cusco, 1,100 km (700 miles) southeast of the capital Lima, began the blockade on July 23, the Ministry of Energy and Mines said in a statement on Monday.

The protesters were "putting the health and wellbeing of the public at risk", it added, by violating social distancing rules to fight the coronavirus pandemic that has hit Peru, the world's second-largest copper producer, particularly hard.