Chile: Mineral Policy

Chilean Context

Chile is a mining country and few people in the nation would doubt that condition which can be observed especially in the center and northern regions of it and also in Patagonia. From ports to roads, in the streets of main cities and even when you go on a family fieldtrip to the Andes mountain range, expressions of this condition of mineral producers can be found.

Chile is a unitary republic with a central government and representation offices for each of the Ministries in all of the fifteen regions the country is administratively divided, which manage the main part of the regulation for project development. The parliament (also called the National Congress) has two cameras – the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate – and their scope of action is limited to new law establishment, despite the political stake some congressmen can take sometimes in relation to a specific project.

At a local level, a Major and a Board of Counsellors manage Municipalities and they have...