Connection to mining brings Peruvians to Western Australia's Goldfieds

Australia Broadcast Center

16-07-2025

Food is the biggest thing mining student Roberto Huapaya Montes misses from home.
Five months ago, the Peruvian national moved to Kalgoorlie.
"I don't have the magic to make my Peruvian food," he said.
"I have to adapt."
Almost 600 kilometres from Perth in WA's outback, the red dirt town might seem worlds apart from his Latin American home.
The similarities between Peru and Kalgoorlie are not immediately obvious, but Mr Huapaya Montes said there were lots to be found.
"I also come from a mining country, so it's pretty familiar, but at the same time different," he said.
Mr Huapaya Montes is one of a handful of Peruvian students studying at the Western Australian School of Mines.
He was keen to explore a new culture after completing his undergraduate degree in the country's capital, Lima.
It was the mining on Kalgoorlie's doorstep that made it an attractive place to study for Mr Huapaya Montes.
"You go with your work uniform and you go to the street, you go to the supermarket," he said.
"It's more the identity."
Peru and Australia both boast positions as global leaders in mining exports.
Mining accounts for around 63 per cent of Peru's total exports, led by copper, gold, zinc and iron.
Peru's ambassador Vitaliano Gallardo Valencia said the South American country looked to learn a lot from Australian mining processes.
Hoping to strengthen the ties with Western Australia's mining industry, the ambassador made a stop in Kalgoorlie-Boulder on a recent trip to the state.
"Like the technology sector, you can have the impression you are in the centre of the industry in Silicon Valley," Mr Gallardo Valencia said.
Mr Gallardo Valencia said greater connectivity with the world had made Western Australia an incentive for more Peruvians to travel to the state.
"The journey to arrive in Australia was more of a tourist stop," he said.
"You leave Lima by plane, you stop in Santiago, and from Santiago to Easter Island, from Easter Island to Tahiti, from Tahiti to Sydney, from Sydney to Perth.
"You can't perceive how important changes in connecting our countries have been."
The relationship between the two countries is also underpinned by a free trade agreement signed in 2020.
In times of global trade uncertainty, Mr Gallardo Valencia said maintaining strong partnerships in the Pacific was at the forefront.
"This is the moment when you see who your partners are," he said.
"We need to be a reliable source of critical minerals, and we need to be open as a country with an open market economy to ensure the flow of rare earth minerals to the rest of the globe."
Australian Mining Equipment Services and Technologies (METs) were set to be among the benefits of a zero-tariff agreement with Peru.
In 2017, METs were Australia's top export to Peru, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, valued at close to $77 million.
Mr Gallardo Valencia said modern mining required an increasingly diverse set of skills.
"You sometimes think that the only point of connection is geology, metallurgy, mining engineering," he said.
He said Peru was looking to Australia for innovation in areas such as AI, environmental sustainability, working with First Nations communities, and encouraging more women to enter the mining industry.
Mr Huapaya Montes would like to see more sustainable mining practices in his country.
He hoped to take what he had learnt from Australia back to Peru once he graduated.
"Now we have to be aware we have to give the next generation what we've been given," Mr Huapaya Montes said.
While he might miss Peruvian food, Mr Huapaya Montes has found a community of other Latin Americans who like to cook together on the weekends.
He has enjoyed sharing his culture with other students at his university.
"We danced salsa, and then an Aussie was teaching us how to dance," he said.
"It's a really good community."