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    Chile mining under Kast: policy, permitting and project risks for engineers

    March 11, 2026|

    Reviewed by Joe Ashwell

    Chile mining under Kast: policy, permitting and project risks for engineers

    First reported on MINING.com

    30 Second Briefing

    Chile’s new president José Antonio Kast has merged the Mining and Economy ministries under agronomist Daniel Mas, prompting concern from industry groups that a sector generating 11–12% of GDP is losing technical focus just as projects face “cursed” permitting processes requiring 500+ approvals. Copper output fell 2% in 2025 and Cochilco now sees production peaking mid-decade before sliding towards about 4.4 Mt by 2034 unless stalled projects advance. At the same time, Chile is pushing a 14‑mineral critical strategy and new lithium JVs such as Codelco–SQM’s Nova Andino Litio and Codelco–Rio Tinto at Maricunga amid tighter state control and volatile copper prices around $13,098/t.

    Technical Brief

    • Individual mining projects in Chile can require over 500 separate permits before construction mobilisation.

    Our Take

    With Chile already supplying roughly a quarter of global mined copper, the projected slide to 4.4 Mt by 2034 in the absence of new projects would materially tighten the market just as other Latin American jurisdictions in our database – notably Venezuela and Bolivia in the January 27, 2026 piece – are being repositioned as alternative security-aligned sources of copper and lithium.

    The requirement for more than 500 permits per project in Chile contrasts with the ‘security zone’ framing highlighted for other Latin American frontiers in the January 27, 2026 article, suggesting that Kast’s room to accelerate copper and lithium developments may hinge more on administrative streamlining than on new resource discoveries.

    Codelco and SQM both feature heavily across our recent copper and critical-minerals coverage, and any Kast-era policy reset on assets like the Atacama and Maricunga salt flats would likely influence how global majors such as Rio Tinto – also prominent in multiple Top 50 and Power Rankings pieces – allocate capital between Chile and competing copper-lithium provinces.

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    Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.

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