Mining exports up 14% in Nov.

Peru's mining sector exports rose 14.1% to US$377mn in November compared to US$331mn in same-month last year, according to the country's export promotion agency Prompex. Mineral exports rose 18.4% to US$4.05bn in the first 11 months of 2003 against US$3.43bn in the year-ago period, Prompex said in its regular monthly bulletin. Sales abroad of gold, Peru's biggest export, registered US$171mn in November, a year-on-year increase of 14.8%. For the January-November period, gold exports rose 38.4% to US$1.86bn from US$1.34bn in the 2002 comparative period. Copper exports, Peru's second most important export, totaled US$122mn in November, up 19.1% on US$102mn in same-month 2002, while in the January-November period copper exports grew 2.3% to US$1.11bn from US$1.09bn. Other mineral exports that grew in November were iron, soaring 41.5% to US$8.21mn and zinc, up 21.3% to US$36.5mn. But sales abroad of lead fell 34.6% to US$6.27mn, silver by 2.1% to US$16.7mn and tin dropped 91.9% to US$920.000, the government agency said. For the first 11 months of the year, iron exports grew 14.3% to US$85.5mn, those of silver rose 9.5% to US$176mn, and zinc exports were up 20.8% to US$457mn. Meanwhile, exports of tin over the same period fell 32.4% to US$96.9mn and lead dropped by 1.8% to US$175mn. In total, Peru's exports rose 19.6% in November to US$732mn, compared to US$612mn in same-month last year, and increased by 15.1% in the first 11 months of 2003 to US$7.97bn.