Subsistence farmers have struggled to adapt to the loss of their traditions and the "very urban, very organised" layout of planned towns, Leon said.
"It is generally a shock for rural communities," Leon said.
At least six proposed mines have required relocations in Peru in the past decade, Leon said. Later this month, Peru will tender a $2-billion copper project, Michiquillay, which would require moving yet another village.
MMG inherited the Nueva Fuerabamba project when it bought Las Bambas from Switzerland's Glencore Plc in 2014 for $7 billion.
Under terms of a deal struck in 2009 and reviewed by Reuters, villagers voted to trade their existing homes and farmland for houses in a new community. Heads of each household, about 500 in all, were promised mining jobs. University scholarships would be given to their children. Residents were to receive new land for farming and grazing, albeit in a parcel four hours away by car.
Cash was an added sweetener. Villagers say each household got 400,000 soles ($120,000), which amounts to a lifetime's earnings for a minimum-wage worker in Peru.
MMG declined to confirm the payments, saying its agreements are confidential.
Built into a hillside 15 miles from the Las Bambas mine, Nueva Fuerabamba was the product of extensive community input, MMG said. Amenities include a hospital, soccer fields and a cement bull ring for festivals.
But some residents say the deal has not been the windfall they hoped. Their new two-and-three story houses, made of drywall, are drafty and appear flimsy compared to their old thatched-roof adobe cottages heated by wood-fired stoves, some said.