By the Witness Radio team
Communities and environmental organizations in Peru have launched an international petition urging people around the world to pressure financiers to withdraw support for the Ariana copper-zinc mining project, which they say could jeopardize the water supply of more than 10 million people in Lima and Callao.
The campaign, led by international advocacy group EKO Movement and backed by the Peruvian environmental organization CooperAcción, targets Banco Santander, which campaigners say provided a US$100 million refinancing facility to Alpayana S.A.C., the Peruvian company that owns the Ariana mining project.
The Ariana project is an underground copper and zinc mine located in the Marcapomacocha district, Peru’s Junín region. Alpayana acquired the project from its previous owner, Southern Peaks Mining, in 2025. That same year, the company secured a US$100 million refinancing facility from Banco Santander Perú S.A. and Banco Santander S.A. (Spain).
“Banco Santander has enormous leverage over the company. We want Santander to understand that the environmental and reputational costs of supporting this project are greater than any economic benefits,” Paul Maquet, a campaigner with CooperAcción, told Witness Radio Uganda.
The petition is the latest chapter in a campaign that has lasted more than six years. Environmental organizations first challenged the project in court in 2019, arguing that its location within the Marcapomacocha water system poses unacceptable risks that the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) failed to address.
“The mining project is located in the heart of the Marcapomacocha water system, a natural and artificial infrastructure network that is the main source of water for Peru’s capital, Lima, and the city of Callao, which together have more than 10 million inhabitants,” Maquet added.
He said campaigners’ concerns are echoed by SEDAPAL, which has identified significant risks in its own technical assessments.
According to the petitioners, Lima’s public water utility, SEDAPAL, warned that the project could reduce both the quantity and quality of water reaching the capital by disrupting groundwater flows and exposing water sources to heavy metals from mining operations. The utility also raised concerns that vibrations from underground mining could affect the structural integrity of the Trans-Andean Tunnel, an essential component of Lima’s water supply system, and that the proposed tailings storage facility, located about 100 meters from the tunnel, could collapse.
The Ariana project received environmental approval in 2016 and was expected to begin operations in 2019. However, legal challenges have delayed its development.
In 2025, Peru’s Constitutional Chamber of Lima, ruling on a constitutional appeal filed by a group of Lima citizens, found that the project poses an imminent threat to the fundamental rights to water and to a healthy environment. The court ordered additional studies to better assess the mine’s potential impacts on Lima’s water supply before the project can proceed.
Campaigners argue that while Ariana is promoted as a source of copper needed for the global energy transition, the race for critical minerals should not come at the expense of environmental protection and fundamental human rights.
“This is an example of the global rush for strategic minerals. If the water supply for a country’s capital is not a limit, then where are the limits?” Maquet asked.
Rather than focusing solely on the mining company, campaigners are directing their efforts toward its financiers, calling on banks to use their leverage and responsibility to ensure investments do not contribute to environmental harm or human rights violations.
The international petition calls on Banco Santander to withdraw financial support for the project and use its influence to encourage Alpayana to abandon the mine.
Witness Radio Uganda contacted Alpayana S.A.C. and Banco Santander for comment on the concerns raised by campaigners and the international petition. Neither company had responded by publication time.
But Alpayana, on its website, says it is committed to being a responsible and sustainable mining company with deep respect for the environment, social responsibility, and people at the core of its values.
