While mines in the top copper nation are seeking ways to use less water, there’s only so much they can do.

The new strategy of respecting the right to protest while brokering lasting agreements may take longer, but it’s starting to bear fruit, Prime Minister Mirtha Vasquez said in an interview late Tuesday.

President-elect Gabriel Boric has said Chile should not repeat its "historic mistake" of privatizing resources such as lithium, a vital ingredient of electric car batteries.

Mounting opposition to new lithium contracts in Chile is the latest indication of just how difficult it will be for the world to churn out the building blocks of the clean energy transition.

Extraction at BHP's Escondida, the world's largest copper mine, fell by 11.6% year-on-year to 80,300 tonnes in November. In 2021 through November, the mine recorded a 14.5% drop.

The country's Constitutional Court upheld a lower court ruling cancelling the environmental permit for the Rio Magdalena project, which covers most of the Los Cedros natural reserve.

Private equity firms are lining up to take on the dirty -- and highly profitable -- assets being divested by publicly traded commodity producers as the world grapples to decarbonize.