Peru Stops Miners From Exploring Rainbow Mountain Tourist Area
- The region’s colorful slopes attract about 1,000 hikers a day
- Where tourists see stunning colors, miners saw copper and iron
Photographer: Martin Mejia/AP Photo
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Clashes between tourism and mining are not rare in Peru, a country peppered with historic and touristic sites that’s also the world’s second-largest producer of copper, zinc and silver. But in the case of Rainbow Mountain, those in favor of conservation appear to have won out.
Late Friday, the Peruvian government blocked all mining exploration licenses on Rainbow Mountain, a rising South American tourist destination. Located in southeastern Peru near Cuzco, once the capital of the Incan empire, and the Machu Picchu ruins, the area’s colorful slopes attract about a thousand tourists a day to Winikunka, which means the Mountain of Seven Colors in the local Quechua language.