REGION REPORT | LATIN AMERICA
LAND OF OPPORTUNITY
Latin America is a huge area, a huge market – and, with the change to sustainable energy and demand for the metals and minerals that power that change - a huge opportunity. Julian Champkin reports.
S
outh America long had the reputation of the sleeping giant – an economy that was always about to wake up and take
off, but which for one reason or another never did. The potential of the continent is undeniable: it has vast natural resources, demand for some of which can only escalate as the world turns to sustainable energy: 43% of the world’s lithium reserves are in Chile and Argentina, there are significant cobalt deposits in Brazil, and Chile and Peru combined account for 50%
of the world’s copper production. Mining has long been a mainstay, but the solar energy potential of the Chilean north desert exceeds that of the Sahara, and wind energy potential in the south of Patagonia is exceptional. Wind, solar and battery-power are all sectors that globally have changed in less than a decade from experimental prototypes to mature technologies that are expanding at breakneck speed. Different nations in the region have handled these and other opportunities with different degrees of success. Chile and
Brazil are at the forefront: the latter, as a founder member of BRICS, [originally Brazil, Russia, India and China; others have since joined] has identified itself to the world as one of the major developing countries. Its GDP, at $1.92 trillion, is the same as Saudi Arabia’s (source: World Bank/OECD). At the other end of the scale, Venezuela, despite its oil, is a country in long-term crisis. So Latin America is a place of opportunity and of potential. Some companies have been quietly establishing themselves in the continent for many years
The port of Manaus. Credit: Portal da Copa, Wikimedia Commons. 32 | September 2024 |
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