Mining is the engine of Chile´s economy. Mining was responsible for 14.2% of Chile’s GDP in 2012 and nearly 57% of exports were concentrated in this industry.

It is present in 13 of the 15 regions of the country, extracting 25 different products.

The main the mining product is copper, well known as ‘the income of Chile’. The country is the largest producer of copper in the world, satisfying the 36% of the world market, having 28% of the world’s reserves of copper.

Chile has 39% of the South American reserves of lithium. In 2010, 42% of the world production of this mineral was concentrated in the country.

The mining of other resources – such as iron, molybdenum, nitrate, gold and silver – is also important.