Whether they are selling properties, monster trucks or hard hats, conference goers will be discussing issues ranging from exports to China, to optimizing heap leaching, to building new energy plants and turning old mines into wildlife parks.

"One of the big themes will be what happens with metals prices in the future and this stems from global market volatility and troubles with US real estate," said Rafael Romero, an analyst for the sector at Scotiabank in Lima.

A fall in metals prices would quickly hurt share prices of mining companies, but investments in new mines, which occur over many years, would stay on track, analysts said.

This year there are scant large concessions up for auction by the government, so in order to grow, big companies are shifting their attention to acquisitions.

"There's a lot of interest in junior companies among bigger companies that want to expand and these companies have lots of cash on hand," Romero said.

Peru is a leading global producer of precious and base metals. It ranks first in silver; third in copper, zinc and tin; fourth in lead and molybdenum; and fifth in gold.

Though Peru is a metals giant, only a fraction of its mineral wealth is being mined.

Huge growth lies ahead, but its pace will likely be determined by the government and mining companies dealing with growing community opposition to mines and labor unions that are increasingly willing to strike to demand higher wages.

The government in Peru has tried to clamp down on labor outsourcing, telling companies to invest in hospitals and schools to help keep the peace in poor communities near mines.

At the same time, President Alan Garcia, a former leftist who now embraces free trade and wants to capitalize on Peru's mineral wealth, is pushing companies from Australia to Brazil to expand here.

LABOR DISPUTES

But disagreements between companies, unions and towns are frequent. The industry says the government needs to have more of a presence in rural communities sitting next to mines.

"The government has to make sure things happen orderly and peacefully," said Ysaac Cruz, president of Peru's association of mining companies.

Strikes in the industry are common these days and the Peruvian unions at Southern Copper, one of the world's top copper producers, plan to go on strike this week to demand higher wages.

The strike would come on top of an extended walkout at the giant Cananea copper pit in Mexico, where workers and management at Grupo Mexico - which controls Southern Copper - have failed to reach a deal in over a month.

And next week unions at Peru's Shougang Hierro, a Chinese iron-ore miner, say they will strike for better pay.

On Sunday, community groups in three Peruvian towns will meet to stop a Chinese company from investing US$1.4 billion to develop a massive copper mine, but Peru's government has promised to take the side of the miner.

Local community groups say the sprawling mine would damage the environment and plan to hold a symbolic vote with 30,000 people to block construction. The project is controlled by Zijing Mining Group, the second-biggest gold miner in China.

The mine would represent a major shift in the traditional economy, based on farms of coffee, corn, sugar cane and oranges in the towns of Ayabaca, Pacaipampa and Huancabamba.

"The population will decide at the meeting if it wants agriculture and healthy living or if it wants mining," said Deyber Flores, who opposes the mine and is head of the environment commission in the town of Ayabaca.