Chile leases non-active licences held by top miners to primary miners

SMM, Nov. 29: despite increased interest in copper assets, the rate of new discovery remains low, especially in Chile. Chile is the world's largest copper producer, and most of the exploration is in the hands of major miners.

The Ministry of Mines has instructed local authorities to draft a register of companies willing to participate in land transfer policies.

According to media reports, authorities in the four major mining areas will submit a list of mining properties currently at a standstill this weekend, as well as a list of companies willing to participate in the rental real estate transfer.

Despite the difficulties faced by Chile's primary miners, Chile attracted 7.6 per cent of the $600m invested in exploration in 2017.

Most of this spending comes from large companies, including Codelco, a state-owned copper miner. Junior miners accounted for 8.8 per cent of exploration activity in China last year.

Not all of the findings are economically feasible and companies will wait years to start developing them until they make sense, adding to the copper supply tensions warned by experts this year. With few large projects online, a growing number of people in the industry believe the market could run short as early as next year.