The 7th Anglo-Chilean Society Mining Conference took place on the 1st of November 2017.
We held this event in the magnificent residence of the Society of Antiquaries of London at Burlington House.
With Commercial and Free Trade Agreements with 64 different countries and Investment protection treaties with economies representing over 75% of global GDP, effective institutional support, clear rules for investors, experienced and specialized human resources and social, political and economic stability, Chile meets all the necessary conditions for multi million dollars investments that will bear fruit over an extended period of time. The country has maintained a well-deserved position amongst the 5 world most attractive jurisdictions for mining investment.
Mining is now a driving force for the development of Chile, representing around 13% of GDP, 34% of foreign investment, 57% of export revenue and 18% of tax revenues in the last 10 to 15 years.
The Chilean Minister of Mines, Mrs Aurora Williams, gave a thorough update of the state of the large mining investment programme in Chile for the near future.
This programme is now showing signs of recovery after seeing the trough in the cycle of world mining investment and has risen from US$ 50billons in 2016 to over US$65billions in 2017 for a forward period of around 10 years.
In 2017, around 90% of the investment is directed to copper projects, 8% to iron and industrial minerals and 2% to gold. Lithium projects keep on showing important increases. National investment accounts for 65% of this total and the balance comes from foreign sources.
Chile ranked 4th in world mining exploration budgets, accounting for 6.4% of the world total with US$ 443 million in 2016.
Four important government initiatives for the development of the sector are a programme of support for technological development, the promotion of a National Plan of Geology and initiatives to invite for joint ventures with private capital to explore and exploit Enami’s mining property and Codelco’s Lithium salt flats.
Following her presentation, the Minister was interviewed by Javier Blas, reporter of Bloomberg News and answered questions from the floor.
The event raised a lot of interest and counted with the attendance of around 100 delegates, among which were present Baroness Hooper, Vice President of the Anglo-Chilean Society, Lord Mountevans, Late Major of the City of London and the Ambassadors of Ecuador and Chile.
This event counted with the generous sponsorship of Anglo American, Antofagasta Plc and Rio Tinto, three of the largest international mining groups listed in the FTSE100 index of the London Stock Exchange and with operations in Chile.
