The Latin American and Caribbean region, with its considerable reserves of copper, lithium and rare earths, accounts for 30% of global mineral supply and USD 180 billion in exports. However, the exports are largely of raw materials; the region lacks the refining and processing capacities to transform these into the high-value materials essential for energy transition and advanced technologies. As Carolina Rojas Hayes, Head of Mining, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) points out, Latin America has “enough geology, but not necessarily the infrastructure and the policy frameworks to take advantage of this geology.” 

The IDB’s LAC Minerals Initiative has stepped in to seal this gap. In this episode of Critical Supply, Carolina talks about how the initiative operates and where its reforms are working. 

The initiative has three pillars: supporting policy and creating enabling conditions in countries; investment mobilization and risk mitigation; and infrastructure and value chain development. For example, the IDB helped the Chilean government formulate its mining policy such that it embodies the principles of transparency and sustainability. The initiative is also looking into the development of corridors connecting mining sites with markets. For example, the Bi-Oceanic Corridor which aims to bring the resource-rich region spanning Brazil, Argentina and Chile closer to markets. 

All of IDB’s work hinges on its environmental and social guardrails. “The IDB group might choose not to engage in some issues where these minimum conditions do not exist,” Carolina points out. “That includes protecting indigenous peoples, transparency and accountability of the work we do across the region.” 

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About Critical Supply 

Critical minerals are central to the energy transition and advanced technologies. While the geopolitical dynamics and environmental and social challenges of critical mineral mining frequently make headlines, we rarely hear about the companies, civil society leaders, and policymakers that are doing the hard work of making supply chains equitable and sustainable.  

In each episode, hosts Shyam Sundaram, Partner, and Jeffrey Berger, Principal, Dalberg Advisors, take one mine, community, company, or deal as a starting point and ask what it reveals about the sector as a whole. They focus on where real progress is taking place, what made it possible, and what’s still hard.