"The decisive turning point in the fate of Chile's private mining sector came on December 1, 1981, with the passage of the Organic Constitutional Law on Mining Concessions.

 

Without this law, private mining would not exist. And Chile would be a very different country.

 

In 1970, Chile and Zambia produced the same amount of copper: 700,000 tonnes. Today, Zambia's output has fallen to 312,000 tonnes, while Chile's has soared to 4.75 million tonnes. These starkly contrasting paths have nothing to do with ore quality—Zambia even holds comparative advantages there. The real difference lies in the rules of the game and the institutions each country established.

 

Chile is a country rich in natural resources. But without public policies that allow them to be harnessed, possessing them or not makes no difference.

 

With legitimate pride, we can say that Chile is today the world's leading mining nation".