Lima (Platts)--6Feb2013/645 am EST/1145 GMT

Peruvian gold and copper production, the country's leading mineral export revenue earners, fell in December from the same month a year earlier, according to figures released Tuesday by the energy and mines ministry.

At the same time, production of silver and zinc rose in December from a year earlier while lead was flat and iron ore declined.

Production of copper by all companies operating in Peru fell in December to 120,498 mt, down 1.8% than the same month of 2012. But, copper production for January-December 2012 period was 1,298,564 mt or 5.1% more than in the previous year, the ministry said without giving a reason for the variation.

Gold production in December 2012 was 12.8 mt or 9.2% less than in the same month a year earlier. The decline was led by the country biggest gold mine, Newmont Mining-owned Minera Yanacocha, where production in December was 2.3 mt or a 33% decline from the same month the previous year. For the full year, production in 2012 was 161.3 mt, or a 2.9% decline from the previous year, the ministry said without citing a specific reason for the annual decline.

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Silver production in December was 305,443 mt or 1.7% more than in the same month a year earlier, the ministry said. While it did not give a reason for the increase, the ministry said that during the month silver production by the leading precious metals local miner, Cia. de Minas Buenaventura, was 41.5 mt or 13.6% of the monthly total.

For the January-December 2012 period the total silver production was 3,479 mt or a 1.8% increase from the same period a year earlier.

Iron ore production by the country's lone producer of the mineral, China-based Shougang, in December was 634,343 mt or 13.9% less than in the same month a year earlier. Iron ore production in all of 2012 was 6.68 million mt or 4.7% less than in the previous year.

Zinc production in December of last year was 105,192 mt or 2.9% more than in the same month of the previous year. The increase was the result of greater production by the three main zinc producers in the country, Cia. Minera Antamina, Cia. Minera Milpo and Volcan Cia. Minera, the ministry said.

As for the full 2012 zinc production, the total was 1.28 million mt or 1.9% more than in the previous year, the ministry said without giving a reason for the cumulative annual, year-on-year increase.

Lead production in December 2012 was 21,002 mt or 0.4% more than in the same period of the previous year with Volcan, EA Chungar and Buenaventura accounting for 15%, 13% and 9% of total production, respectively, the ministry said. Lead production for all of 2012 was 248,659 mt or 8% more than in all of the previous year, the ministry said.

The ministry statement did not provide any information on tin production.

--Renzo Pipoli, newsdesk@platts.com
--Edited by Katharine Fraser, katharine_fraser@platts.com

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