Moquegua

Moquegua operates as a metabolic engine for Peru's copper economy—a region where Southern Copper's 4,000-meter elevation mines feed a smelter and refinery at the coastal city of Ilo, creating a vertically integrated production chain. The Cuajone and Toquepala open-pit mines, 860 kilometers southeast of Lima, produced 415,258 tons of copper in 2024—an 11% increase that made Southern Copper the fastest-growing among Peru's top ten producers. Quellaveco, wholly owned by Anglo American, began commercial production in 2022, further concentrating copper capacity in this region.

The investment pipeline reflects Moquegua's centrality to Peru's copper future. Southern Copper plans approximately $10 billion in new refinery capacity for the region, with additional projects including Tía María (120,000 tons annually by 2028), Michiquillay (225,000 tons by 2032), and Los Chancas (130,000 tons). A June 2024 legislative change increased permit allowances for operational modifications from 5% to 10%, accelerating expansion timelines.

Yet Moquegua's hyper-arid catchment creates water constraints that no regulatory change can ease. The region sits in one of the world's driest deserts, requiring sophisticated water management to support both mining operations and agricultural production in the narrow coastal valleys. The Cuajone mine's water use has been studied as a case in landscape-scale resource allocation under extreme scarcity. Peru's copper mining market reached $18.2 billion in 2024, growing at 5.3% annually—and Moquegua's geology positions it to capture a disproportionate share of that growth, provided water supplies hold.