Chile seeks projects to extract cobalt and rare earths from mining waste

Chile’s national development agency, Corfo, unveiled on Tuesday an initiative to promote the extraction of strategic minerals, including cobalt and rare earth elements, from mining waste. 

With an investment of $3 million to $4 million per project over a three-year period, the program is designed to foster innovative solutions for sustainable mining and technological development.

The call for proposals, open until March, represents Chile’s latest effort to capitalize on its vast reserves of  tailings — estimated at nearly 800 across the country. 

The initiative aligns with a predicted increase in demand for the metals needed for the global energy transition, which has driven demand for a wide range of commodities, including lithium and cobalt, widely used in electric vehicle batteries, as well as rare earths, essential for renewable energy technologies.

“These are strategic minerals, especially cobalt and rare earths, where we have great potential,” Mining Minister Aurora Williams told the audience attending the event. She emphasized that older tailings, often overlooked in the past, now hold significant economic value.

Williams also announced plans to modernize regulations for the construction, management, closure, and reuse of tailings, with reforms set to be introduced in March. This regulatory overhaul aims to ensure that Chile—already the world’s leading copper producer—can tap into its underutilized mineral resources in a sustainable matter, Williams saidy.

Corfo’s head of Technological Capabilities, Fernando Hentzschel, highlighted the agency’s focus on fostering innovation and scalability in the extraction process. “We’re looking for triggers for technological development,” Hentzschel said, noting that some small-scale technologies for extracting cobalt already exist. “We are looking to scale up these types of technologies.”

Chile has made modest strides in extracting copper from mining waste, but the obtention of cobalt and rare earth elements remain largely inexistent. 

The initiative reflects a broader push within the country’s mining sector to maximize resource efficiency while addressing the environmental challenges posed by tailings.

(With files from Reuters)