**Exhibit31.1**

 

CERTIFICATIONPURSUANT TO

Section302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

 

I, Oscar Gonzalez Rocha, President and ChiefExecutive Officer of Southern Copper Corporation, certify that:

 

1.             I have reviewed this quarterly report on Form10-Q of Southern copper Corporation;

 

2.             Based on my knowledge, this quarterly reportdoes not contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state amaterial fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of thecircumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading withrespect to the period covered by this quarterly report;

 

3.             Based on my knowledge, the condensedconsolidated combined financial statements, and other financial informationincluded in this quarterly report, fairly present in all material respects thefinancial condition, results of operations and cash flows of the registrant asof, and for, the periods presented in this quarterly report;

 

4.             The registrant’s other certifying officer(s)and I are responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls andprocedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) andinternal control over financial reporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules13a-15(f) and 15-d-15(f) for the registrant and we have:

 

a.     Designed such disclosure controls andprocedures, or caused such disclosure controls and procedures to be designedunder our supervision, to ensure that material information relating to theregistrant, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us byothers within those entities, particularly during the period in which thisquarterly report is being prepared;

 

b.     Designed such internal control over financialreporting, or caused such internal control over financial reporting to bedesigned under our supervision, to provide reasonable assurance regarding thereliability of financial reporting and the preparation of condensedconsolidated financial statements for external purposes in accordance withgenerally accepted accounting principles;

 

c.     Evaluated the effectiveness of the registrant’sdisclosure controls and procedures and presented in this project ourconclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and proceduresas of the end of the period covered by this report based on such evaluation;and

 

d.     Disclosed in this report any change of theregistrant’s internal control over financial reporting that occurred during theregistrant’s most recent fiscal quarter that has materially affected, or isreasonably likely to materially affect, the registrant’s internal control overfinancial reporting; and

 

5.             The registrant’s other certifying officer(s)and I have disclosed, based on our most recent evaluation of internal controlover financial reporting, to the registrant’s auditors and the audit committeeof the registrant’s board of directors (or persons performing the equivalentfunctions):

 

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a.     All significant deficiencies and materialweaknesses on the design or operation of internal control over financialreporting which are reasonably likely to adversely affect the registrant’sability to record, process, summarize and report financial information; and

 

b.     Any fraud, whether or not material, thatinvolves management or other employees who have a significant role in theregistrant’s internal control over financial reporting.

 

 
|           | /s/  Oscar Gonzalez Rocha              |
|----------------|----------------------------------------|
|           | Oscar  Gonzalez Rocha                  |
|           | President  and Chief Executive Officer |
|           |                                   |
| August 3, 2006 |                                   |

 

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