• The validity of the REINFO has been extended until December 2024, and it depends on Congress whether to extend or shorten it. The former regional governor of La Libertad criticized how easy and quick it is to register on this list.

The vice minister of mines, Jaime Chávez Riva, has requested Congress to shorten the validity of the Comprehensive Mining Formalization Registry (REINFO), which was approved until December 31, 2024.

The REINFO serves as a registry. It is not a certification of formalized mining operations. It allows small-scale miners to extract minerals without complying with regulations and shields them from government intervention while they go through the formalization process.

"We should not keep putting this off. In this country, temporary regulations become permanent," he said.

He did not indicate whether the government would present a bill to shorten this period; instead, he emphasized that the solution to this problem rests with Congress.

"The validity of the REINFO is established by law. Our administration cannot do much about it. We trust that Congress will legislate wisely. There are several projects aimed at solving this issue. There are other options. I believe that Congress itself is aware of what the public is demanding," he noted.

The Vice Minister stated that if the validity of the REINFO is shortened, the Public Prosecutor's Office and the police will be able to intervene and contribute to the reduction of illegal mining in the country.

RAPID REGISTRATION

The Vice Minister participated in the panel discussion titled "Overview and Challenges of Combating Illegal and Informal Mining" at PERUMIN 36, and he was not the only one to criticize the validity of the REINFO.

The former regional governor of La Libertad, Manuel Llempén, mentioned that during a meeting with authorities of his department when he was still in office, they registered on the REINFO very easily, in just eight minutes. This discovery reveals that any citizen can register without scrutiny.

"Illegal mining conceals a dangerous conflict that can cause great damage to the country's democratic institutions... We must act quickly. It is urgent to act in the best possible way," he stressed.

REWARDING GOOD PRACTICES

Finally, Violeta Bermúdez Valdivia, former prime minister and director of the USAID Prevenir project, argued that an illegal miner and a formal miner should be treated differently in order to reward good practices, for example, by providing technical assistance for the use of clean technologies and product marketing. She also noted that changing regulations is not very effective when the same practices continue.