MINING.COM launches Latin America mining and geopolitics series

Latin America is entering 2026 with resources at the centre of a fast-moving geopolitical realignment, underscored by the US capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.

For years, political risk for miners and explorers in South America largely centred on higher taxes and royalties, permitting delays, and opposition from local governments and communities. Outright asset seizures, prolonged production stoppages and blanket mining bans were rare and, when they did occur, were often temporary.

That calculus is now changing. Governments and investors are increasingly focused on who controls critical minerals, which capitals have Washington’s support, and how far states will go to lock in supply chains that underpin everything from electric vehicles to weapons systems.

In this new series, MINING.COM will track the forces reshaping the region’s markets through a geopolitical lens, as mineral-rich frontiers increasingly take on the character of security zones and markets respond as much to shifting alliances as to domestic election results.

Countries in the series so far:

• Bolivia
• Chile
• Colombia