The mining industry in Africa will benefit greatly by taking a leaf out of Chile’s book on the circular economy, managing the environment and water resources, and recycling old mining tyres.
After travelling to Antofagasta, a prime mining hotspot in Chile, South America, a month before undertaking the 2023 Why Africa Road Trip through the major mining regions of southern Africa, the lessons for Africa’s mining sector are clear: ensure sustainability through proactive management of future impacts and control current and historic waste through a well-established circular economy.
Antofagasta is a port city in northern Chile’s dry Atacama Desert. The region
is known for the massive amounts of copper and lithium it produces. Being two
of the most sought-after commodities in the world today, these critical minerals
are being unearthed at a break-neck speed in Chile and in southern African
countries like Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Namibia
and Botswana.
Chile is the world’s largest producer of copper and six of the 10 largest copper
mines in the world are located in and around the Atacama Desert, while the
DRC and Zambia are the fourth and seventh-largest producers of copper
respectively.
Read the full article on Why Africa.
