Chile Promotes $83 Billion Mining Portfolio in Japan

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Written by Amir Richani for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Chilean Minister of Mines Aurora Williams recently travelled to Expo Osaka 2025 and held meetings in Tokyo to promote Japanese investments in her country's mining sector and strengthen relations with Asian companies. Japan is one of Chile's leading mining partners, with Japanese companies holding stakes in several mines and representing a key destination for the country's mining output.

Miners operating in Chile, such as Codelco (Santiago, Chile), Sociedad Quimica y Minera (SQM) (Santiago), Anglo American plc (London, England) and a href="https://www.teck.com/" target="_blank">Teck Resources Limited (NYSE:TECK) (Vancouver, British Columbia), were also present at Expo Osaka to promote their projects and production.

Williams met in Tokyo during the second week of June with companies like Mitsubishi Corporation (Tokyo), Marubeni Corporation (Tokyo), Mitsui & Co. Limited (Tokyo) and others. Sumitomo and Mitsui hold mining operations in Chile.

"Japan has been a strategic partner for the development of the Chilean mining industry for decades, both as a producer and exporter of minerals and also as a platform for a significant group of SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) supplying mining goods and services, which generated around US$970 million abroad last year, according to ProChile data," Williams said.

The nation's mining portfolio for 2024-2033 comprises 51 mining projects worth US$83 billion, representing the highest investment value in the previous decade. Fifteen projects amounting to US$15.2 billion are greenfield developments, with another 35 brownfield projects worth US$66.5 billion plus one smelting project.

About 89% of the portfolio's investments pertain to copper projects, while the remaining ones are for other minerals. Copper accounts for 36 of the projects, followed by gold and lithium with four projects each, and other minerals with seven projects.

Japan is the second-largest recipient of copper exports (in bulk, blister, or refined form) from Chile, behind only China, with 625,000 metric tons in 2024, according to data from Cochilco, Chile's mining authority.

Meanwhile, Codelco produced 16,000 tons of molybdenum (a byproduct of copper production) in 2024, accounting for 7% of the global output, of which 60% went to the Japanese market.

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