• Cumbre Minera [Mining Summit,] PERUMIN's main space for dialogue, will bear his name again this edition.

On a day like today in 1992, engineer and mining businessman David Ballon Vera was kidnapped in the district of Surquillo by the MRTA, a terrorist organization that after months of extorting money from his relatives, murdered him in February 1993. A despicable act that will remain etched in the memory of all those who ever met him.

At the time of his death, engineer David Ballon was President of the Peruvian Institute of Mining Engineers (IIMP), an institution that today honors him and pays him a heartfelt tribute three decades after his painful departure. It is precisely this year that the Mining Summit, PERUMIN's main space for dialogue, will once again bear his name.

“For us, the mining convention has a mystique behind it, to meet and share with all the mining professionals, but also to remember those who have left, and some of them who left in rather unfortunate conditions such as Engineer Ballon,” Victor Gobitz, President of PERUMIN’s Mining Summit, stated.

Jorge Ardila, former President of the IIMP, pointed out that with the death of David Ballon, Peru lost one of the main promoters of domestic and foreign mining investments. His tragic demise not only saddened his relatives, but the entire mining family. “His sons, Carlos and Oscar, had to run his companies from then on,” he noted.

Outstanding career

Engineer David Ballon was originally from Apurimac and became an important leader in the national mining sector. In 1969, he served as Director of Mining Promotion of the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MINEM); in 1971, as General Director of Mining; and in 1972, as Director of Minero Peru.

His most prominent contribution was as President of Banco Minero del Peru [The Mining Bank of Peru], when in 1976 he created the “Mining Acceptance Mechanism”, by which loans were granted under favorable conditions to small and medium-sized mining companies declared in crisis. He was also the founder of the Katanga and Madrigal mines, Sudamericana de Metales Peru, Geotec, Boyles Bros Diamantina and Chairperson of the Board of Directors of important mining companies.

At the international level, he was the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Intergovernmental Council of Countries Exporters of Copper (CIPEC) in 1972; Chairperson of the Peruvian delegation to the Iron Group meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, and consultant to the Panamanian government and the Cerro Colorado Mining Corporation of that country from 1975 to 1981.