When I first started going to Peru around 2009, these were not abundant, but you could find them with some lucky timing, as they were still occasionally coming to market. Now however, there is probably more of this material outside of Peru than in the country-- on my last trip last year I only saw a couple small crappy ones with exorbitant prices-- this is actually the first time I bought one in the USA!  I figured it wasn't cheap, but given the size of the crystals and how hard they are getting to find, it was still worth picking up.

Basically what happened in Peru was that in the early 2000's, the government allowed privatization of many of the country's major ore mines. When the private companies bought up the mines, they changed the policies that governed collecting specimens-- while it had always been discouraged, the new owners made it a fireable offense. But they also increased the miner's wages, to the point that it was no longer worth the risk to collect specimens-- a steady, generous paycheck was no match for the occasional specimen income from infrequent pockets. Actually, you would be surprised how much these guys are paid-- salaries in rural Peru can be around 30,000 USD, with multiple family members often working at the same mine.  In Huallanca (near Antamina and  Huanzala) the influx of cash has made even tiny plots of land absurdly expensive, I was told around 70K for a 100 by 50 foot plot not he outskirts of town-- and again, this is rural Peru 

While that's all great for the locals, it sucks for mineral collectors. Miners at Huanzala seem to have reached a deal with the management, but most of the other producers are now either closed, or do not allow specimen collecting, and that is why there is no more Uchucchacua rhodochrosite.