Local communities living near the Las Bambas copper project in Peru are benefiting from sustainable development projects that they helped to identify, prioritise and implement.

In 2005, Xstrata Copper funded major projects in three main categories – health; livestock and pasture enhancement; and enterprise development and job creation. Before the projects were selected, the Las Bambas team consulted widely and the priorities were agreed by the communities in open meetings. In addition, all training carried out as part of the projects included modules on capacity building and institutional strengthening. These projects include:

• construction of irrigation systems in Pamputa, Huancuire, Pallca Picosayhuas, Chicñahui and Choquecca and a cattle breeding programme;
• guinea pig breeding and the establishment of hydroponic pasture farms in Fuerabamba; and
• trout farming in Pamputa.

The main challenge faced by the communities around Las Bambas is the limited success of agriculture and cattle production largely due to overgrazing, lack of irrigation channels, poor genetic breeding, and parasites. Irrigation systems are being constructed and healthy cattle will be introduced to improve the local genetic pool and a health prevention system will be established to protect the new cattle from disease. Local people consider this project essential to improving their nutrition and health, particularly for children and pregnant women. The project also provides a potential source of income from the production of dairy goods.

The local community also identified the breeding of small animals as an effective means of improving family nutrition and increasing commercial capacity and income generation over the mid-term. A pilot guinea pig breeding project has been undertaken by 10 families in Fuerabamba to test whether improved guinea pigs could adapt to the altitude (the Las Bambas site and surrounding communities are situated at over 4,000 metres above sea level) and whether the families could easily adopt the new techniques required to breed this type of guinea pig.

A nutrition baseline for the families was established during the year; guinea pig houses were built; a hydroponic greenhouse was constructed for growing barley (an important source of vitamins for guinea pigs); and monthly training and capacity building programmes were undertaken with women and children, including workshops on preventing family violence and alcoholism.

In the second half of 2005, four NGOs were invited to submit proposals to carry out phase two of the guinea pig project. The project was awarded to Caritas based on the technical rigour of its proposal. A partnership was established between Las Bambas and Caritas in January 2006 and work has started in the communities of Pumamarca and Chuicuni to extend this project to 100 families.

In early 2005, Xstrata Copper signed an agreement with SENCICO to provide training for 200 local people in construction and masonry as a precursor to a trout farming project in Pamputa. These people and a number of others were engaged mid-year to construct a six-pond rainbow trout farm under the leadership of an engineer and two construction specialists. The engineer prepared the drawings and managed the project while local people built the infrastructure.