Cheerful accounts from the government and positive signals for mining investment, in the midst of a depressed copper production at the national level. This was the preliminary balance after the announcement made by Freeport-McMoRan for the expansion of Minera El Abra, a project in which it plans to invest US$ 7.5 billion to triple copper production at the deposit, a project that is expected to be active in 2033.

The Minister of Mining, Aurora Williams, highlighted the announcement of the North American mining company as ‘good news for the mining industry and shows that the effort we are making as a government to stimulate the economy, with initiatives such as the bills to speed up sectorial permits or the ProGrowth and Employment Cabinets that allow us to unblock investment are valued by the industry’.

Chile is a serious country, with a mining industry and tradition of more than 100 years, which allows us to give certainty to investors, in addition to offering all the conditions to develop projects, with a world-class logistics chain’, added the Secretary of State.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Finance, Mario Marcel, indicated that this is ‘a very important announcement that is representative of the boom we have seen in the mining sector after the favorable resolution of the royalty issue’.

This investment is in addition to the almost US$ 20 billion projected for the next four-year period 2024-2027, the US$ 3.5 billion of Los Bronces, and BHP’s US$ 10 billion investment portfolio’, complemented the head of Teatinos 120.

Jorge Cantallops, executive director of the Centro de Estudios del Cobre (Cesco), also praised the North American mining company’s announcement. It is a very powerful signal for the region of Antofagasta and for Chile, because it will allow adding another important initiative to the portfolio of future projects. It is a project that has been under analysis by Freeport for almost 12 years, so this is an excellent sign that Chile continues to be attractive for investment’, he said.

For his part, Plusmining’s founder and CEO, Juan Carlos Guajardo, highlighted the reduction of regulatory and constitutional noise as the main factors behind the announcement.

The royalty, as well as the rejection of the proposed new Constitution, made it possible to reduce a stage of high uncertainty and risk and therefore have been a sign of certain stability for investors’, said Guajardo, although he also emphasized the context of copper production in the country.

In order to explain these major investment decisions, it cannot be overlooked that in Chile we have a productive base that is in dire need of projects that allow it to maintain its competitiveness, which is occurring at a time when there is a great need for minerals throughout the world that demands growth from mining companies’, he concluded.

Source: La Tercera.