The economy and mining minister, Daniel Mas, met with regional authorities and mining companies in the city of Antofagasta, Chile’s most important mining hub, to establish a working agenda aimed at addressing investment challenges and strengthening the sector.
Mas, together with mining Undersecretary Álvaro González, discussed with stakeholders from the productive ecosystem — which contributes more than 10% of national GDP and over 20% when considering production linkages — ways to boost mining capitalization and strengthen Chile’s leadership in global copper and lithium production.
“We want Chile to once again be a global mining powerhouse, to generate more social progress and improve people’s quality of life, especially in the regions where this activity is key to development,” Mas said at the mining summit held on March 13.
The authority mentioned that it is already working to speed up the processing of projects, and to “turn 90 permits into signed authorizations, I would say, in the next six months,” he added.
The meetings also addressed the needs of the Antofagasta Region and the strategic role of mining in local economic growth.
Mining represents about 69% of the region’s economic activity and at the same time the region generates more than 45% of the national mining GDP, thanks to its leadership in the production of copper, lithium, molybdenum, nitrates, iodine and sodium sulfate.
It is expected that by 2029, the Antofagasta region will produce 3.7Mt of fine copper. In addition, in that area SQM and Codelco operate through the company Nova Andina in the Salar de Atacama with production that in 2025 reached 233,000t of lithium carbonate equivalent.
But he held discussions with executives from Chile’s major mining companies, in which representatives from firms such as BHP, Codelco, Anglo American, Antofagasta Minerals, SQM and Teck took part.