Chile, world copper giant, saw its production fall 1.9% in 2021

The copper production in chili, the world’s largest producer of the metal, fell 0.6% year-on-year in December, accumulating a decline of 1.9% in all of 2021, according to figures released by the Government of that country.

The National Institute of Statistics (INE) reported that the country added 503,605 tons in the last month of last year and reached 5.68 million tons in all of 2021.

According to the Reuters report, despite the fact that mining operations in Chile were not, for the most part, affected by the restrictions to contain the coronavirus pandemic, some deposits reduced specific operations.

It should be noted that, in addition to the state giant Codelco, global firms such as BHP, Glencore, Anglo American, Freeport McMoRan and Antofagasta operate in the South American country.

The state Chilean Copper Commission (Cochilco) estimates a metal production of 5.7 million tons in 2022, with an increase of 2.6% compared to 2021, and 6 million tons in 2023.

Miners run out of water in Chile

The Commission on the Environment and Economic Model of the Constitutional Convention of Chile, responsible for preparing the new Magna Carta, has approved this Thursday, February 3, a rule that repeals the current Water Code, in force in its third version since 1981.

According to the newspaper La Tercera, the proposal, presented by 22 constituents of native peoples, Chile Digno and Pueblo Constituente, states that the water resource “cannot be the object of private appropriation” or any action that amounts to “a significant alteration of its hydrological cycle. Nor does it contemplate that its use puts the survival of “the ecosystems and the communities that depend on it” at risk.

In Chile, the Water Code, modified for the last time during the Pinochet dictatorship, assigns ownership of water to those who have the right to use it, while also separating land ownership from the right to water, in a de facto privatization that leaves indefinitely the essential resource in the hands of businessmen, landowners and the exporting agribusiness, according to the speakers.

The Chilean system, which contravenes the 2010 United Nations resolution ratified by the country itself to recognize access to drinking water and sanitation as a human right, is accused of being responsible for its economic growth in the last three decades, according to critics of the new Magna Carta. Mining represents more than 60% of Chilean exports and agriculture, around 8%.