*Peru’s President Dina Boluarte has appointed Jorge Luis Montero Cornejo as her new energy & mining minister, after Montero’s predecessor, Rómulo Mucho, was impeached by congress on 26 November. Montero, who was deputy mining minister from 2020-2021, will face the immediate challenge of resolving protests by informal miners who have been angered by the government’s efforts to tighten regulations on the sector. Legislators partially defused the protests on 29 November by extending by a further six months the deadline for artisanal and small-scale miners to formalise their status under the Registro Integral de Formalización Minera (Reinfo) scheme, which had been due to expire on 31 December. The extension was approved with 87 votes in favour, 20 against, and 12 abstentions.