Santiago 2012: Hernán de Solminihac, Minister of Mines of Chile
The Chilean Minister of Mines gave keynote remarks at AS/COA's 2012 Santiago conference, discussing the country's resource-exploitation scenario as well as government plans to drive development of the mining sector.
Chile's mining minister gave a presentation at AS/COA's 2012 Santiago conference on his country's plans for further development of the extractive industries. World-wide copper consumption has grown 80 percent since 1992, with most of this coming from China since 2000. Chile produces one thrid of the world's copper, 40 percent of which is consumed by China. The country is home to 28 percent of the world's proven copper reserves, and mining is responsible for 60 percent of Chilean exports. Furthermore, investments over the next eight to ten years are expected to be worth $104.3 billion. This will make Chile producer of, in 2020, 8.5 of the world's copper output.
These investments will face a series of challenges, including increased use of water and energy, both of which are already stretched; greater human capital resources; and more efficiencies in exploration. In the case of water, extractive industries currently use 8.8 percent of the country's supplies. Additional water supplies will need to found for these upcoming projects, with the possibility of piping sea water to mining sites being considered. Moreover, these investments will require an extra 70,000 people to work and manage them. As half of Chile is women, pointed out the minister, the country would be losing a significant maount of human capital if women are not encouraged to work in mining. For this reason the government has launched a program to train woman across the country to work in extractive industry. Currently, Chile's mining industry counts with 7 to 8 percent female participation.
Innovation needs to grow in the sector and already in place innovations could begin to be exported to other sectors, including traditional industry, metallurgy, transport, and also overseas as Chilean technology. In terms of investment innovations, the Mining Ministry created the Fondo Fénix to spur innovation, as wella s a web portal that provides geological information from across the country to help incentivize investors.
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