Copper Riches Are in Cross-Hairs of Chile Presidential Hopeful
- Communist Party’s Jadue would align Chile mine rules with Peru
- Chile state must have stakes in all mining operations, he says
Photographer: Cristobal Olivares/Bloomberg
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The man who early polling suggests will be Chile’s next president plans to raise mining taxes in coordination with neighboring nations and take equity stakes in copper mines in a bid to retain more mineral wealth.
Daniel Jadue, the current front-runner in polls for November’s elections in Chile, wants to align mining rules with Peru, Argentina and Bolivia so they don’t compete for investments, he said in an interview Wednesday. Like Indonesia has done, he also plans to renegotiate with foreign companies to take stakes in their assets in what would be the industry’s biggest disruption since U.S.-owned mines were nationalized to form Codelco in the 1970s.