Peru's projected mining sector investments total more than $30 billion, Energy and Mines Minister Pedro Sanchez said Friday at the close of Perumin, an international mining conference.

"It was $24 billion, but at the close of this conference, it's reached more than $30 billion," Sanchez told journalists. "The projects are included in the Energy and Mines Ministry's program, and they will materialize progressively."

Several major mining companies have plans for large-scale expansion and investment projects in Peru, the world's top silver producer and a major miner of gold, copper, zinc and other metals.

Xstrata PLC's (XTA.LN) board of directors will vote next year on a $5.1 billion investment in two mining projects in Peru, said the company's chief operating officer for southern Peru, Jose Marun. The projects include a $3.8 billion investment in its massive Las Bambas copper project in Peru's southern Andes, for which a feasibility study is expected next year.

Chinalco (ACH) subsidiary Minera Chinalco Peru SA is planning to present its environmental impact study for its 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.

Compania Minera Antamina SA - a joint venture of BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), Xstrata, Teck Resources Ltd. (TCK) and Mitsubishi Corp. (8058.TO) - said 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.

-By Leslie Josephs; Dow Jones Newswires; 511-98853-8610; peru@dowjones.com