On occasion of the XXVII Mining Convention, taking place in Arequipa from September 12 to 16, 2005, Myriam Cabrera, specialist on conflict management of the PERCAN Project, gave a talk on “The Cost of Social Conflict,” in which she alluded to the cost that the numerous violent protests are effecting on the mining sector and Peruvian society as a whole, as well as to the role of the so-called Conflict Industry, whose presence is retarding sustainable development efforts in the country, considering that while there is violence, there would be no sustainable development.