Having tasted success by exporting gold to India, Latin American nation Peru now has plans to sign a free trade agreement with New Delhi to ship more of minerals and metals it produces.

“Peru got permission to sell gold to India in 2011. We began exporting in 2012 and shipped out 106 million ounces. Last year, we exported 270 million ounces. This year, it will be even higher,” said Javier Paulinich, Ambassador of Peru to India. He is in Pune in connection with the 11th India International Gold Convention – 2014.

The Latin American nation is the sixth largest gold producer, mining 5 million ounces every year. Peru is also the second largest producer of silver and the third biggest producer of copper, tin, zinc and lead.

“We have proposed to India on a free trade agreement. In return for our minerals and metals, we would avail of your IT and other products such as agricultural produce,” he said. “We are keen to sign the trade pact like the ones India has signed with other countries,” the Peru Ambassador added. In directly bringing gold in dore form, India will save precious foreign exchange spent on refining, while ensuring that the manufacturing facility in India can be used. In India, the MMTC-Pamp Refinery uses these dores to refine gold and make products such as coins and bars.

On May 26, MMTC-Pamp refinery got the London Bullion Markets Association’s accreditation for its refining process. Of the total gold imports into the country, which zoomed to nearly 1,000 tonnes in 2012, roughly 10 per cent is in dore form.

“Peru exported 0.6 per cent of India’s gold imports last year,” said Rajesh Khosla, Managing Director of MMTC-Pamp. On the other hand, three Indian firms have invested in gold mining in Peru, Paulinich said, without divulging further details. The Peru Ambassador also inaugurated the two-day convention in which nearly 500 Indian and foreign delegates are taking part.

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