Main highlights
- Latin America and the Caribbean holds a significant share of the world’s critical minerals (including copper and lithium), positioning the region as a key player in the global energy and technological transition.
- IDB LAC Minerals brings together financing, technical assistance, and partnerships to support the entire mining value chain, with the goal of attracting investment, strengthening capabilities, and promoting sustainable development.
- Financing, technical assistance, and cooperation are already supporting mining projects and planning efforts in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, and others.
By Carolina Ferreira Herrera, Carolina Rojas Hayes
In a rapidly changing world, minerals have become a central component of economic and technological development. Copper, lithium, nickel, graphite, and rare earth elements are now essential inputs for infrastructure, electric mobility, energy storage, and advanced technologies.
In this context, Latin America and the Caribbean is strategically positioned, as it holds some of the world’s largest mineral reserves and plays a leading role in global mining production. The region accounts for approximately 37 percent of global copper production, occupies an important position in lithium, iron ore, bauxite, and niobium markets, and possesses significant untapped potential in minerals such as rare earth elements, graphite, and nickel.
Recognising both this opportunity and the challenges that accompany it, the IDB Group, made up of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), IDB Invest, and IDB Lab, has launched IDB LAC Minerals, a comprehensive framework that makes available all of its instruments to support countries and investors throughout the mining value chain and ensure that mineral wealth is translated into economic and social development.
Building a robust and responsible mining value chain
IDB LAC Minerals combines technical assistance, financing, and strategic partnerships to support countries across all stages of mining value chain development. Its purpose is clear: to position the region as a key player in global strategic mineral markets by strengthening competitiveness, accelerating investment, and promoting sustainable development that generates tangible benefits for people and communities.
The initiative aligns IDB Group’s effort under three strategic pillars:
Institutional strengthening, capacity building, and governance
Creating an enabling environment for responsible mining through stronger regulatory and fiscal frameworks, improved permitting processes, enhanced technical capabilities, and greater transparency and traceability.
Investment mobilisation and risk management
Facilitating investment and reducing risks across mineral value chains to attract capital and promote private-sector-led projects. This pillar combines sovereign and non-sovereign financing, risk mitigation instruments, co-financing mechanisms, and public-private partnerships. It also seeks to ensure that projects generate greater social and environmental benefits, strengthening their legitimacy and acceptance among communities and stakeholders.
Infrastructure and value chain enablement
Supporting the development of physical and digital infrastructure needed to produce, process, refine, and export minerals efficiently and sustainably. At the local level, it promotes the development of small and medium-sized mining companies and suppliers to increase their participation in value chains, improve productivity, and facilitate integration into national and international markets.
From strategy to action: Mobilising resources and partnerships for greater impact
The initiative is supported by an active resource mobilisation and co-financing strategy involving bilateral and multilateral partners as well as the private sector. Through loans, guarantees, concessional funds, and technical cooperation, the IDB Group seeks to close financing gaps and expand the impact of investments in the mining sector.
Within this framework, the initiative is already supporting several countries in the region through resources provided by the European Union and the government of Japan.
In Brazil, it supports the mapping of critical mineral deposits to strengthen the quality of geological information, optimise decision-making, and facilitate long-term strategic planning for the mining sector. In Bolivia, it supports mining sector development through reforms aimed at diversifying participation in the sector, improving environmental sustainability, strengthening institutions, advancing strategic projects, and attracting investment.
In Chile, it supports the National Geology and Mining Service in the modernisation and digital transformation of its Geological Exploration Information System (SIGEX), which is expected to reduce processing times for permits and declarations related to mineral exploration and mining property by nearly 50 percent, advance digitalisation efforts, and improve the integration of geoscientific and territorial information.
In Argentina, IDB Invest plays a key role through financing of up to USD1.175 billion to support the expansion of Rio Tinto’s Rincón Mining lithium project in Salta Province. The operation will strengthen production, employment, and the integration of local suppliers, while being complemented by technical assistance to enhance environmental, social, and governance standards and foster regional economic development.
An approach aligned with the region’s needs
Through IDB LAC Minerals, the IDB Group reaffirms its commitment to supporting the region in one of the most strategic issues of the 21st century: transforming its mineral resources into shared prosperity while protecting the people and planet.
Through a comprehensive approach that combines financing, technical assistance, and public-private partnerships, the initiative seeks to connect competences, mobilise responsible investment, and strengthen the conditions needed to generate tangible benefits for communities, territories, and economies across the region.
At a time of growing global demand for strategic minerals and rapid technological advancement, Latin America and the Caribbean have an opportunity to consolidate its role as a key actor in global value chains and advance toward a more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive development model.