Mining in Chile

The mining sector in Chile has historically been and continues to be one of the pillars of the Chilean economy. Mining in Chile is concentrated in 14 mining districts, all of them in the northern half of the country and in particular in the Norte Grande region spanning most of the Atacama Desert. Chile was, in 2025, the world's largest producer of copper, iodine and rhenium, the third largest producer of lithium and molybdenum, the fifth largest producer of salt, the sixth largest producer of silver, the ninth largest producer of potash, the thirteenth producer of sulfur and the fourteenth producer of iron ore in the world. As a by-product of copper mining Chile produces also large quantities of gold and silver, but there are also a number of mines extracting gold as their primary resource. In 2021 mining taxes stood for 19% of the Chilean state's incomes. Mining stood for about 14% of gross domestic product (GDP) but by estimates including economic activity linked to mining it stood for 20% of GDP. About 3% of Chile's workforce work in mines and quarries but in a wider sense about 10% of the country's employment is linked to mining. The governance of mining in Chile is done by non-overlapping bodies; the Chilean Copper Commission, ENAMI, the National Geology and Mining Service (SERNAGEOMIN) and the Ministry of Mining. SONAMI and Consejo Minero are guilds associations grouping corporate mining interests in Chile. Chile's National Statistics Institute reports on the state of the mining industry through the monthly publication of the Mining Production Index. Some challenges of the Chilean mining industry come from overall mine aging, remoteness and harsh climatic conditions of mining in the high Andes, and increased water demand coupled with water scarcity. Other challenges are related to increasingly complex legal frameworks...