With mineral prices rebounding as the global economy stabilizes, Peru is once again a hotbed of mining activity, with a number of new projects underway that could sharply boost output.

A wide range of local and foreign companies are pouring money into feasibility and environmental impact studies to bring greenfield projects on line, or are planning to ask their boards to approve expanding existing operations.

Sociedad Minera Cerro Verde SAA (CVERDEC1.VL) said Wednesday it will restart its molybdenum operations this month at its mine near Arequipa in southern Peru, due to increased demand. The company in January suspended those operations, which had produced three million pounds of molybdenum in 2008, due to poor market conditions.

Compania Minera Antamina SA said at a conference being held in this southern Peruvian city that it is planning to begin work in the first half of next year on an expansion that will increase the life of that giant base metals mine by at least seven years.

Chief Executive Ian Kilgour said they are in the detailed engineering stage now and that new processing mills "should be operating by the second half of 2011," pending shareholder approval.

That mine is a joint venture between BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), with 33.75%, Xstrata PLC (XTA.LN), with 33.75%, Teck Resources Ltd. (TCK) with 22.5% and Mitsubishi Corp. (8058.TO) with 10%. Antamina produced 198,111 metric tons of copper and 268,877 tons of zinc in the first seven months of the year.

Another big producer, Southern Copper Corp., (PCU) also has a number of projects on the drawing board, including an expansion at its Toquepala mine and copper and molybdenum concentrators, as well as an expansion at its Ilo smelter and refinery.

Southern Copper Chief Executive Oscar Gonzales told reporters that he expects the government to grant it the required permits by October to move ahead with its Tia Maria mine project. The company aims to bring Tia Maria into production in mid-2011, and to produce 120,000 tons annually of the red metal there.

Gerald Wolfe, chief executive of Chinalco (ACH) subsidiary Minera Chinalco Peru SA, told reporters that the company is planning to present its environmental impact study for the Toromocho copper mine in central Peru in coming days. That $2.2 billion project is scheduled to begin production in 2012, with an estimated planned capacity of copper metal of 250,000 tons per year.

Xstrata PLC's board of directors, meanwhile, will vote next year on a $5.1 billion investment in two mining projects in Peru, the company's chief operating officer for southern Peru, Jose Marun, said in a presentation Wednesday.

Xstrata estimates an investment of $3.8 billion for the Las Bambas copper project in Peru's southern Andes, which the company has said has "progressively been developed into a major copper project to construct a 300,000 tonne per annum open pit operation."

A feasibility study for the project is expected by the end of the year.

An additional $1.3 billion is seen needed by Xstrata to develop the Antapaccay mine in Peru, and the company will present an environmental impact study by the close of 2009, Marun said. Construction is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2010 and conclude in 2012.

Various smaller miners are also moving forward with projects.

Miner Compania Minera Milpo SAA (MILPOC1.VL) expects to finish a feasibility study for its $300 million base metals Hilarion project by the end of the year, company General Manager Abraham Chahuan said.

Peru is the world's largest producer of silver, and a major producer of gold, copper, zinc and other metals.

-By Leslie Josephs and Robert Kozak, Dow Jones Newswires; 511-99927 7269; peru@dowjones.com