About

Founded in 1943, Volcan Compañía Minera, also known as Volcan, is a Peruvian mining company engaged in the exploitation of silver, zinc, copper, lead and hydroelectric power plants. With such long-standing operations in the country, there is a high degree of complexity in its activities which requires a legal department to drive innovative solutions according to business needs. ‘Our philosophy implies a commitment that goes hand in hand between efficiency and professional ethics’, says general counsel Alfonso Rebaza. The legal team is composed of 16 lawyers, four engineers and four support staff, and is divided into various areas of specialism. These are: permits and licenses, which provides legal advice to mining operations and is made up of five lawyers and three engineers; corporate matters, which provides legal advice in financing processes, corporate structures and complex negotiation of contracts and M&A, mining properties, which is in charge of the concessions procedures before the mining authorities in Peru, and the tax department, which provides legal advice in tax planning, tax procedures and general tax advice to all the group. ‘The members of the legal department are professionals with a long-proven level of specialisation in the areas of law related to the mining business. We work constantly in the identification of opportunities for improvement’, says Rebaza. The team has utilised its specialisms to implement the reorganisation plan of the main mining concessions of the Volcan group, involving the transfer of mining concessions and the concentration of administrative economical units. It has been integral to several important changes with the main aim of empowering the presence of the legal department within the mining units, providing effective and complete legal service. The legal team has also implemented the aforementioned tax advice unit within the legal department, in order to have an improved management and control of tax proceedings and tax advice to all the group. The team has also gone on to obtain favourable rulings for the company in cases related to holding certificates and rollback matters. Perhaps most notably, the legal function has also worked towards the approval of the signing of a voluntary remediation agreement on mining environmental liabilities by the Ministry of Energy and Mines, located in the ex-mining unit “Carhuacayan”. This will allow further sustainable development in the country thanks to remediation and utilisation of liabilities. In 2019, the transaction between Volcan and Chinese SOE Cosco Shipping Ports for the development of Chancay port in Peru was established. The agreement, Rebaza states, is a ‘milestone in the development of the port and the growth of Volcan, and also starts a joint venture with Cosco [the second largest shipping company in the world]’.