Clean Technologies Institute, slamming the door on mining

The government’s lack of vision in awarding the funds to create the Clean Technologies Institute is surprising.

So far, the government has not explained the criteria used to deliver large resources to a consortium of American universities, created in 1946 for collaboration in pure science, and to a group of private Chilean universities without any relevant trajectory in the focus of the Institute.

Mining is the only world league where Chile plays. And the only way to go beyond mining is precisely by investing in innovative solutions based on local capabilities, certainly in collaboration with foreign actors. The mining sector, including suppliers and academia, understood this years ago, deploying an articulated work to strengthen the innovation ecosystem around virtuous mining that allows the creation of technology-based solutions-oriented to productivity and sustainability and an exportable service platform as a specific purpose. This, in turn, is the obvious path for Chile to move from natural resources to the knowledge economy.

Added to this are the possibilities offered to the country by our competitiveness in renewable energies and our commitment to green hydrogen.

The Chilean mining sector had to overcome significant difficulties to finally generate the necessary public and private associativity, to make the great leap that allows generating knowledge and cutting-edge technologies in a strategic activity for Chile.

The decision made known at the beginning of this week is a slam to these efforts and, paradoxically, to those of the government itself, which is about to announce the Mining Policy to 2050, to which it has been dedicated since it took office.

The necessity to review this decision in substance, and also procedurally, is urgent. The options are also not black or white, there are ample possibilities to achieve a solution that benefits all stakeholders, but especially the country.

Alejandra Wood

Executive Director

Cesco