Four South American nations sign strategic minerals pact to reshape global supply chains

Four South American countries have signed a cooperative pact on strategic minerals, marking a formal step toward turning the continent’s vast lithium, copper, and rare earth deposits into a coordinated geopolitical asset rather than a collection of individual mining operations. The agreement, involving Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Peru, arrives at a moment when the global scramble for critical minerals has become less about geology and more about alliances. What the pact actually covers The deal builds on months of escalating cooperation across the region. Argentina and Chile have been advancing operational protocols for cross-border copper projects under their revived 1997 Mining Integration and Complementation Treaty. That effort alone could unlock $20.7 billion in investments and boost annual copper output by 540,000 tonnes. Brazil has been building its own parallel track. On August 6, Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy formalized a technical cooperation agreement with the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, known as CAF. The goal is to study and develop regional integration of critical minerals supply chains across the Mercosur trading bloc and Chile. Peru ...