Chile is making its biggest bet on copper in decades, aiming to attract roughly $100 billion in mining investments over the next ten years. The goal: expand output to feed the insatiable appetite of data centers and AI infrastructure, while simultaneously weaning itself off a customer base that leans dangerously hard on a single buyer.
That single buyer is China, which currently absorbs more than 70% of Chile’s copper exports. Chile’s economic fortunes rise and fall with Beijing’s appetite, and Santiago has decided it’s time to change that.
Why copper, why now
The country has held the title of world’s largest copper producer since 1983, a four-decade reign built on massive porphyry deposits buried in the Atacama Desert. In 2024, Chile produced an estimated 5.5 million tons of the metal, accounting for roughly 24% of global output.
Chile’s mining sector already punches well above its weight in the national economy. In 2023, mining contributed approximately 12% to Chile’s GDP and represented 57% of total exports. The $100 billion investment target would be transformative even by those standards.
