Peru's Poderosa Plans to Invest 25 Million Soles to Expand the Santa María I Processing Plant

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 9, Compañía Minera Poderosa disclosed its expansion plan for the Santa María I processing plant, which aims to increase ore processing capacity from 600 tonnes per day to 1,000 tonnes per day, along with the construction of new mine auxiliary facilities. The project is located in the La Libertad region of Peru, with an estimated investment of approximately 25 million soles, equivalent to about US$7.5 million. The company has submitted its fourth Technical Support Report (ITS) for the related modifications to Peru's National Service for Environmental Certification for Sustainable Investments (Senace).

In addition to the increase in processing capacity, this expansion also includes works such as a general warehouse, a maintenance workshop, drinking water treatment facilities, a new mine portal, and a temporary stockyard for scrap wood. Among these, the general warehouse will be used to store steel rails, grinding steel balls, pipes, metal mesh, drill rods, and underground support materials; the maintenance workshop will be used for inspection, preventive maintenance, and repair of mining dump trucks, low-profile mining trucks, and light vehicles. The drinking water facilities will include two storage tanks of 100 cubic meters and 200 cubic meters, as well as a building for water treatment equipment.

The mine works also plan to build a new mine portal in the Santa María area, used to transport ore extracted underground directly to the Santa María I processing plant. All related new facilities are located within the direct environmental impact area already approved in 2017. Senace approved the modified environmental impact assessment for the project in 2017, under the project name "Santa María I Mine Operation and Processing Plant Expansion from 600 tonnes per day to 1,000 tonnes per day."

The project has previously processed environmental technical documents on multiple occasions. In 2022, Senace approved the second ITS; in November 2023, it approved the third ITS. The 2023 approval document made clear that environmental approval itself does not equate to authorization to commence construction, and project implementation still requires applicable construction, land, and other specialized permits.

It is worth clarifying that Poderosa submitted a fourth ITS with the same name in March 2025, but subsequently voluntarily withdrew the application. Senace formally accepted the withdrawal on August 27, 2025, and terminated the administrative procedure numbered M-ITS-00066-2025. Therefore, the fourth ITS disclosed in 2026 is a new filing advancement and should not be conflated with the procedure already terminated in 2025.

Poderosa's official information shows that the Santa María I and Marañón processing plants currently have a combined processing capacity of approximately 980 tonnes per day, both using cyanide leaching to recover gold. In 2024, the two plants processed a total of 697,701 tonnes of ore and produced 293,873 ounces of gold, with an overall gold recovery rate of 90.46%.