• Since Quellaveco, Peru's first digital mine, began construction, it has become the main source of employment for local labor and companies in the Moquegua region.

Alejandro Justiniano, Social Affairs and Development Manager at Anglo American, participated as a speaker at Rumbo a PERUMIN: “Evolution of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Issues in Mining,” where he shared the model that Quellaveco has been applying since 2018, the year it began construction, to promote the labor insertion of the citizens of Moquegua.

“What we have done goes beyond Quellaveco. It is a legacy that can enable the Moquegua region to manage its human and business resources more efficiently. This model could be applied to the regional public or private sector, to make it more robust and participatory,” Justiniano pointed out.

According to Justiniano, Quellaveco centralizes its employment and procurement opportunities through specialized offices that provide information and advice, and match demand to supply. There are two main mechanisms for this: the Local Employment Support Office (OAEL) and the Moquegua Entrepreneur Portal (PEM).

“The Local Employment Support Office (OAEL) connects the labor demand in Quellaveco with the local supply. Out of the 16,000 people registered through this channel, 13,000 thousand worked on the project. In addition, the Moquegua Entrepreneur Portal (PEM) matches the demand for suppliers for Quellaveco to the local supply. Of the 1,529 requirements posted, 761 have been awarded to 289 local companies,” he explained.

Moreover, he indicated that training has been provided to 11,000 people and companies through various programs implemented since 2018.

Thus, from 2018 to 2022, the construction of the Quellaveco mine was the main source of employment for local labor and companies in the Moquegua region, even during the pandemic. As detailed by Justiniano, in those years, the company hired a total of 13,338 local workers and invested S/ 1.2 billion in procurement from Moquegua companies.

“I would like to highlight that there were many challenges during the pandemic. In the evolution of the local workforce, we can note that at the beginning of the pandemic there was a decline, but it began to rise in the middle of the pandemic and reached a peak of 6,473 local workers in December 2021. Now there is a decrease due to the closure of many work fronts, inherent to the process, and we are in operation with 3,838 local workers,” he stated.

Breaking the dependency

On the other hand, Anglo American's Social Affairs and Development Manager indicated that the company aims to go beyond labor dependency, so it is developing various programs so that the population can be engaged and have access to job opportunities beyond the mine.

One of the successful programs is “Anglo American's Fortaleciendo Capacidades” (Capacity Building), which accomplished that 7 out of 10 graduates found employment after their training. More than 3,000 people from Moquegua have participated in the program since 2019.

Another program is “Moquegua Emerge” (Moquegua Emerges,) which involved 100 companies and 361 young people from Moquegua, 100 of whom found jobs, and it is expected to reach more than 900 young people in the near future.

“The Moquegua Emerge program seeks to connect employment and supply opportunities at the local and macro-regional level, considering that we have a mining corridor in the south and that they can go beyond the Moquegua region. This is the focus that is placed on local providers,” he stated.

The speaker concluded by reflecting that “centralizing processes and information (as in the case of Anglo American's OAEL and PEM) makes it possible for us to have control of the process to create direct opportunities. However, the greatest effort is not in providing direct opportunities, but in helping to connect the supply to the demand for opportunities within and outside the region.”

Undoubtedly, this is an effort that does not depend solely on the mining sector, but requires the collaboration of various stakeholders to ensure a greater impact.