Advancing Latin America’s Critical Minerals Potential

The report identifies Latin America's significant reserves of copper, lithium, and other critical minerals as a strategic opportunity to diversify global supply chains. However, it notes that the region primarily exports raw materials, with 62% of critical minerals exports being raw materials and only 38% processed goods. To overcome barriers in infrastructure, financing, and talent, the report advocates for regional collaboration and the creation of 'critical minerals clusters' that leverage complementary national strengths. Proposed solutions include multi-user logistics corridors, shared water infrastructure, and regional innovation platforms.

• Latin America possesses vast reserves of minerals essential for the energy transition, including approximately 40% of global mined copper production and 30% of mined lithium production.
• The region struggles to capture economic value beyond extraction; 62% of its critical minerals exports are raw materials, while only 38% are processed goods.
• Infrastructure gaps significantly hinder the sector, including a logistics performance gap where Latin America and the Caribbean score 2.64 compared to an OECD average of 3.6, and an annual transmission investment deficit of $3-5 billion.
• Water scarcity is a critical risk, particularly in the Atacama Desert, which contains over half of the world's lithium resources and the world's largest copper mine.
• Regional collaboration is proposed as a way to leverage complementary strengths, such as combining Brazil's rare earth reserves and manufacturing with Chile and Peru's copper expertise and Argentina and Bolivia's lithium resources.
• The report suggests the development of specific regional clusters, including an Andean copper cluster (Chile-Peru), a Lithium Triangle cluster (Argentina-Bolivia-Chile), and a magnets industrial cluster in Brazil.
• Technological innovation is constrained by low R&D investment, with Latin America and the Caribbean spending only 0.7% of GDP in 2023, compared to over 2% in the EU.
• Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) is identified as a key technology to reduce the environmental footprint of lithium production, potentially increasing recovery rates to 70-90% and reducing processing time from months to days.
• Financing for greenfield projects is limited by high upfront costs and perceived country risk, necessitating the use of blended finance and support from multilateral development banks (MDBs) and development finance institutions (DFIs).
• Social opposition is a major cause of project delays, with a 2023 study finding that 62% of mining projects delayed by permitting issues were due to stakeholder opposition or environmental concerns.

APA

World Economic Forum (2026). Advancing Latin America’s Critical Minerals Potential. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Advancing_Latin_Americas_Critical_Minerals_Potential_2026.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Advancing Latin America’s Critical Minerals Potential. 2026. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Advancing_Latin_Americas_Critical_Minerals_Potential_2026.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Advancing Latin America’s Critical Minerals Potential |date=August 2026 |url=https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Advancing_Latin_Americas_Critical_Minerals_Potential_2026.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2026advancing, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Advancing Latin America’s Critical Minerals Potential}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2026}, month = aug, url = {https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Advancing_Latin_Americas_Critical_Minerals_Potential_2026.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }