As well as the deaths 17 were injured, three critically, when officers reportedly shot at protesters after they entered the Las Bambas copper mining project

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

At least three people were shot and killed and 17 wounded in a clash between police and highlands farmers protesting a $7.4bn Chinese-owned copper mining project, health officials said on Monday.

Police apparently opened fire on the protesters when they entered part of the Las Bambas mine where the plant that separates copper ore from rock is being built.

Peru planning to dam Amazon’s main source and displace 1000s Read more

The local health director, Jose Soplopuco, said two men died on the way to the regional capital of Cuzco and one at the local health clinic.

Percy Jeronimo, the oral surgeon running the emergency room, said three of the wounded were critically ill.

Soplopuco said ambulances could not reach Challhuahuacho, the town of about 10,000 residents where the clinic is, because police had shot at a vehicle carrying doctors.

The Las Bambas project is owned by a consortium led by the Chinese state giant China Minmetals Corp. It is scheduled to begin production next year and produce 400,000 metric tonnes of copper in 2017.

The president, Ollanta Humala, appealed for calm. And he called Las Bambas Peru’s biggest mining project on Monday.

No one answered the phone at the project’s office in Lima.

Peru is the world’s No 3 copper producer and mining accounts for about 60% of its export earnings.

But resistance by local farmers has frustrated and delayed major projects across the nation. Six people have been killed in anti-mining protests this year, including a police officer whose skull was fractured during May protests against a Mexican-owned copper mining project.