PUBLICATION
Chile Power 2012 POWER Release
Chile is a country in dramatic need of a secure power supply. Developments in generation and transmission have not kept pace with Chile’s economic growth and only energy-saving measures are preventing the grid from another collapse. To address this issue, the government took an important step in February this year when it released a new energy master plan. Its goal is to increase Chile’s installed capacity base to 25 gigawatts (GW) from 17 GW by 2020.
As a result of market-driven policies, Chile has had rapid growth since a popular referendum put an end to Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in 1988. Since then, the economy has posted average annual gross domestic product growth of 5.4%. The 2012 growth rate is forecast at 5.9%, and growth of 4.3% and 4.5% is expected in 2013 and 2014 respectively. Mining, the engine of this economic success, is particularly affected by the lack of reliable power supply.
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It is said that mining is a patient industry. Current demand projections are not. Demand for minerals deemed ‘critical’ is set to increase almost fourfold by 2030, according to the UN. Demand for nickel, cobalt and lithium is predicted to double, triple and rise ten-fold, respectively, between 2022 and 2050. The world will need to mine more copper between 2018 and 2050 than it has mined throughout history. 2050 is also the deadline to curb emissions before reaching a point of ‘no return.’ The pace of mineral demand and the consequences of not meeting it force the industry to act fast and take more risks. Mining cannot afford to be a patient industry anymore. The scramble for supply drives miners back to geological credentials, and therefore to places like the African Central Copperbelt.
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