Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

On 22 April 2026 President José Antonio Kast's administration formally filed the National Reconstruction and Economic and Social Development Bill in the Chamber of Deputies, codifying the 40-measure package unveiled on 15 April. Core mining-sector provisions include a phased corporate tax cut from 27% to 23% by 2029 (25.5% in 2027, 24% in 2028, 23% from 2029), a 25-year tax-invariability regime for major mining projects shielding investors from future royalty increases and new sector-specific levies, and permitting reform capping environmental review rounds and injunctions to compress >1,000-day timelines. The bill targets unlocking Chile's stalled ~USD 100 bn copper/lithium pipeline and is the most significant restoration of legal certainty for foreign mining investors since the repeal of DL 600.

On 27 January 2026 President Gabriel Boric presented Chile's National Critical Minerals Strategy (Estrategia Nacional de Minerales Críticos, NCMS) — the country's first horizontal critical-minerals governance framework, identifying 14 minerals as priorities for development and establishing five strategic pillars: production and diversification of critical minerals; responsible mining; development opportunities based on critical minerals; enabling capacities; and strategic international positioning. The strategy was developed through a multi-year participatory process coordinated through Cochilco and Sernageomin, involving a 16-member high-level advisory committee, 120 specialists from 56 institutions, regional workshops and a public consultation. It materially broadens Chile's mineral policy beyond the 2023 lithium-specific National Lithium Strategy to a cross-cutting framework that underpins future bilateral critical-minerals MOUs and positions Chile as a strategic raw-materials partner for the US, EU and Japan under their respective IRA/CRMA/GX supply-chain frameworks.

Chile enacted Ley No. 21.591 on 10 August 2023, establishing a two-component progressive mining royalty on large-scale copper producers with annual sales of 50,000 or more metric tons of fine copper (TMCF): a 1% ad valorem charge on annual copper sales, plus a progressive operating-margin component (RIOMA) at 8–26% of adjusted taxable mining operating income. The combined tax burden is capped at 46.5% of adjusted pre-tax earnings (45.5% for producers below 80,000 TMCF). The royalty entered force on 1 January 2024 and represents the first copper-taxation reform in Chile in over two decades, directly re-pricing output from BHP Escondida, Codelco, Antofagasta Minerals, and Anglo American operations — together accounting for a majority of Chile's ~5.3 Mt/year copper output.