Peruvian Vice Minister of Mines Guillermo Shinno told the first day of the inaugural Latin America Down Under conference in Sydney that the government was doing everything it could to promote Peru as a "friendly" destination for investors.

Peru is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with 6% per annum growth.

Shinno said the country, already the world's largest silver producer, had a real shot at moving from second to first in terms of global copper production.

Peru contains 22% of the world's silver reserves and 13% of copper reserves.

He said Peru was expecting investment in mining projects in the next five years to reach around $US53 billion ($A54 billion) across 47 projects, mainly across copper, gold and iron ore.

He added that the government was taking steps to encourage further investment, such as combatting illegal miners.

"Unfortunately illegal mining has increased due to high prices for many minerals," Shinno said.

Meanwhile, the Lima Stock Exchange (BVL) is appealing for Australian miners exploring in Peru to consider a dual listing.

Lima Stock Exchange chief executive officer Francis Stenning said the Lima exchange was small by international standards.

"It is, however, achieving increasing success as a catalyst for foreign entities seeing the value of dual listings and taking up a capital position in Latin America countries," he said.

"Peru is going through its best economic conditions in the past century and is one of the healthiest economies in South America and this underpins the strength of our local exchange.

"Importantly, Peru's equity markets and resources sector emerged relatively unscathed from the global financial crisis but has established an attractive equities regime through adopting strict and very conservative regulatory environments.

Stenning said the exchange had done well since the global financial crisis, with mining the key driver.

While only 10% of listed companies are miners, they account for 54% of the exchange's market capitalisation.

"We were seeing that Peruvian projects were being developed by foreigners listed on other exchanges," Stenning said.

"For Australian junior exploration and mining companies particularly looking to secure a foothold in Latin America, the BVL makes the process of listing and issuing shares short and simple."

Stenning said around 92 Peruvian projects were being developed by Canadian companies.

As seen in other conference presentations on the first day, Australian juniors like Strike Resources, Mundo Minerals, Laconia Resources and Latin Resources are working to develop projects in Peru.

"Our message is simple - we want to become the equities gateway to Latin America - and we want Australian resources participants to be part of that process," Stenning said.

"We do expect in the future to not only have Canadian companies but also Australian too."

According to Stenning, Toronto-listed miners dually listed on the BVL raised around $273 million last year.

A joint venture with the Chilean and Colombian exchanges will make the BVL the second-largest exchange in the region behind Brazil by market capitalisation and the third-largest in traded volume.

"Peru is going through a nice time," Stenning said.

"We see this as having great potential."