Mining is a pillar industry in Chile. During the period of 1996, the growth rate of Chile's gross domestic product (GDP) exceeded 7%, while the inflation rate dropped from the historical record of 1989- 1990 to 5.5% during the period of 1996. The Chilean government's six-year term goal is to achieve a 50% increase in per capita national income. 1996 has reached $4700. If Chile's economy can continue to maintain the current good growth momentum, it can be predicted that Chile will enter the ranks of developed countries in the world in the next 10 year.
At present, Chile's foreign trade accounts for about 23% of GDP. 198 Chile's total import and export volume was $32.286 billion, of which1489.5 billion was exported and173438+000 billion was imported. The export of copper concentrate1198,000 tons and crude copper157,000 tons have become the pillar industries of Chile's export trade. Throughout the 1990s, the export of extractive industries accounted for about 45% ~ 50% of Chile's total export value, of which 82% came from the copper industry, and copper export revenue accounted for almost 40% of all export revenue.
Except for Codelcp, Enami, Enacar (state-owned coal company) and Enap (oil and gas company), most state-owned enterprises in Chile have been privatized. At present, Chile is negotiating the feasibility of selling Enami and Enap.
Chile has about 30% of the world's copper resources and is currently the largest copper producer and exporter in the world. According to statistics, the copper output of this country has exceeded 6.5% of that of the whole western countries, and it is expected to reach 4.5 million tons by 2000, an increase of 80% compared with 1.995. In addition, Chile is the world's largest producer of potassium nitrate and sodium nitrate (1.7 million tons of saltpeter), the second largest producer of rhenium, lithium and iodine (9,700 tons 1.998) and molybdenum, the fifth largest producer of selenium, the eighth largest producer of silver and the ninth largest producer of gold. The total value created by the national mining industry exceeds 8% of the national GDP, and the total export value of mineral raw materials exceeds 7.85 billion US dollars.
Chile's mining and exploration work is mainly concentrated in its northern region, although its southern region also has a certain scale of good resource potential, such as the newly discovered large-scale gold and silver deposit in the southern Fachinal region. In fact, in the past ten years, when Chile began to explore world-class copper mines, and within three to four years, at least one major discovery was made, Chile was regarded as a super mining power in the world.
Chile is the largest copper producer in the world. The output of 1998 refined copper is 3.8 million tons, which is mainly produced in the northern II area. Chile has huge reserves of porphyry copper, so this country has the largest underground pit mining and open-pit mining of copper in the world.
1998, Chile's gold output reached 45 tons, second only to Papua New Guinea, making it the largest gold producer in the world. It ranks third in Latin America, after Brazil and Peru. The government predicts that 1999 gold output will exceed 55 tons.
There are three state-owned mining companies in Chile. They are: CodelcoEnam, the largest national copper company, has the function of supporting small and medium-sized mines; National oil and gas company.
Codeleo 1998 copper output increased by 13%, reaching150,000 tons of refined copper, including the share of copper returned by El Abner, which owns 49% of the shares, accounting for 40% of the national output. Most of the increase comes from the new production of Radomiro Tomic mine and the expansion of Andina. Under the current legal conditions in Chile, Codelco must pay 10% of the total sales directly to the military service department. As a result, the total profit of Codelco in that year dropped sharply from $330 billion in197 to $57 billion in198, while the gains made by the army were as high as $21800 million.
Codelco plans to develop a new mine, Campamiento An-tiguo, and close El Salvador. This plan was announced on February 1999, although the start date has not been determined due to the low copper price. A month later, Codelco announced a revised plan to expand Chucky Camata Smelter. However, the plan almost doubled the company's refined copper output from 650,000 tons/year to 654.38+200,000 tons/year, with a budget cost of about 200 million US dollars. At the same time, the cost of acid plant construction in Teniente Smelter has increased by 62 million US dollars, and it is estimated that by 2006.5438+0, the daily output of sulfuric acid will be 2,350 tons.
The average production cost of Codelco copper decreased from 1997 1.49 USD/lb to 0.45 USD/lb, which was affected by many factors, such as the government reducing the burden on enterprises, with a decrease of 8%. 1998, the company invested 675 million USD, of which 29 10/0000 USD was used for Andina expansion project and 2150000 USD was used for environmental protection project. The reported amount of technical transformation projects is $23.8 million.
Codeleo's main task is to directly develop resources to get the best income. On the contrary, Enam's task is to support the development of small and medium-sized mining companies. It has no direct mining business, but provides mineral processing equipment at subsidized prices (four copper plants, Matta, Eesalsdo, Valenar and Taltsa, and the Ventanas smelter under Vina del Mar). For example, in 1999, Enam must buy copper concentrate from small mines at the price of 0.85 USD/lb, and medium mines at the price of 0.765438 USD/lb, if the copper price does not rise above 0.65 USD/lb. In theory, the loan subsidies obtained by producers in this way can be repaid when copper prices rise. Many small and medium-sized coal mines strengthened their management during this period, and their normal production was maintained.
At present, the competition of these super-large exploration projects is more intense and the scale is more expanded. For example, two recent major projects, Kolahusi and El Casey, have invested nearly $2 billion. Other super-large deposits are also expected to be discovered, but they may be buried deeper, increasing the cost of exploration and development, and the number of sulfide deposits has a greater trend.
Although some people think that the exploration of precious metals in Chile is declining, it is still an important producer of gold and silver. A project planned and designed by the National Mining Association (Sonami) earlier this year will increase Chile's silver production by 10% to 654.38+200,000 ounces by the end of this century. Chile is the first Latin American country to get rid of economic and political chaos. Although Chile has a small population and a small land area, it has been playing an important role as a stable position and a typical haven for foreigners to engage in industrial and commercial tasks in Latin America since the late 1980s.
In 1990s, mining provided 45% ~ 50% value for Chile's exports, of which 82% came from the sale of copper. From 65438 to 0995, the export volume of private copper mines surpassed that of the state-owned Cokelc Company, and since then, the difference between them has doubled every year. The National Mining Service Consulting Company (Sonaami) predicts that by the beginning of this century, the total output of private sector copper companies will reach about 3 million tons, equivalent to 2/3 of Chile's total copper output.
Table 2 Output unit of main metal mines in Chile: 10,000 tons
Sonam also predicted that in 1999, Chile's mining output will increase by 1%, and copper output will increase by 14.6%, reaching 4.2 million tons. 1998, Chile's foreign investment ratio 1997 increased by 6.4%, reaching $6.55 billion, of which $2.665438 billion was invested in mining.
In Chile's metal mining industry, the output value of copper mine ranks first. Most copper mine production units can complete the whole production process from mineral processing to smelting copper products, and can recover molybdenum, rhenium, gold, silver, tellurium, selenium and other products. The iron ore industry ranks second in Chile's mining economy. Iron ore, iron balls and smelting products produced by iron ore companies and steel companies when mining rich ores can meet the domestic demand, and half of them can be exported. The mining and production of precious metals have attracted the attention of the government and foreign-funded enterprises, and the sum of precious metal output of primary ore and associated ore has reached the international advanced level. Lead-zinc mining has entered the later stage, and the lead output has fallen sharply, and the zinc output can only maintain the general level in recent years.
(1) copper
Chile's copper industry is mostly a production enterprise integrating mining, mineral processing and metallurgy. There are also some small private mines that sell ores to mining companies, which select and smelt ores to produce crude copper or copper metal products. Chile is the largest copper producer in the world. According to the statistics of the State Bureau of Geology and Minerals, the total amount of copper produced in mines nationwide in 1998 was 3.887 million tons, which was 154% higher than that in 1988 (145438+00 tons). The total output of copper accounted for 30% of the world's total output that year, ranking first in the world. 1999, the copper output of mines in Chile reached a record 4,382,600 tons, an increase of 18.9% over the previous year.
Several of Chile's largest copper mines are basically in the hands of the state-owned Codelco company. 1999 the cash production cost of Chilean copper is 0.39 ~ 0.45 USD/lb, and the total cost is about 0.60 USD/lb. The total cost of copper production in Codelco Company is 0.6 USD/lb, which is 0.09 USD lower than that in 1998. The cost of cathode copper decreased even more, from $0.64/lb in 1998 to $0.56/lb. The cash production cost of copper in Codelco Company decreased from 0.45 USD/lb in 1998 to 0.4 USD/lb in 1999.
(2) molybdenum
Most of the molybdenum mines in Chile are Cu-Mo * *, and there are few single molybdenum mines. 1998 The national mines produced 25,500 tons of molybdenum, which was 19.7% higher than 1997 (2130,000 tons), accounting for 17.9% of the world molybdenum production. Molybdenum is a molybdenite concentrate recovered from associated minerals in copper mines. 1992, Qiu Ji Camata copper mine recovered molybdenum 10203 tons, and Teniente mine recovered 2443 tons. Most of the primary molybdenum mines are small mines (such as Copagir molybdenum mine), and the recovered molybdenum only accounts for about 15% of the national molybdenum output. The mines of Chile Copper Company smelt molybdenum concentrate by themselves, and the molybdenum metal company bought molybdenum concentrate produced by other mines to produce molybdenum oxide and ferromolybdenum. 1999, the molybdenum output of mines in Chile was 27,300 tons, an increase of 7% over the previous year. The output ranks third in the world, second only to the United States and China.
(3) Selenium and Tellurium
1992 Chile produces 40 tons of selenium, ranking third in the world; It produces 5.5 tons of tellurium, accounting for 25.4% of the world's total output, ranking 1 in the world. Selenium and tellurium in Chile are extracted from cathode mud produced by electrolytic refining of crude copper in copper mines. The average contents of selenium and tellurium in cathode mud are 10% and 3% respectively. The main producer is Chile Copper Company, which has a cathode sludge treatment plant for recovering selenium and tellurium. 1999 Chile produces 50 tons of selenium, accounting for 3.9% of the world's total output, ranking fourth in the world.
(4) rhenium
Rhenium is an important by-product of Chilean copper mine. 1992 national rhenium output 1 1792 kg, accounting for 37% of the world's total output (3 1293 kg), ranking first in the world. Rhenium in Chile comes from molybdenite in porphyry copper deposits, which is a isomorphic mineral. Liquid ammonium perrhenate (containing 69% rhenium) was recovered from rhenium-containing gas produced by roasting molybdenum concentrate by solution extraction. The main producers of rhenium are molybdenum metal company and Chilean copper company. 1992, molybdenum metal company produced 8 164 kg of rhenium, and Chilean copper company produced 3628 kg. Qiu Ji Camata Mining Company started roasting molybdenum concentrate to recover rhenium from 1992. When producing low oxygen molybdenum (MoO2 _ 2), 36% rhenium can be recovered from the concentrate by oxygen reduction roasting. In the production of molybdenum trioxide, 68% ~ 77% rhenium can be recovered from the concentrate by oxygen roasting. 1999 Chile produces rhenium 14.7 tons, accounting for 34.2% of the world's total output, ranking 1 in the world.
(5) Gold
198 Chile produced 43.8 tons of gold, accounting for 1.89% of the world's total output, ranking 13 in the world, which was 20.6 tons higher than 1 12.6% in/988. The main reason for the increase in output is that the newly-built primary gold mine is put into mining. For example, the output of Lakoipa gold mine accounts for half of the output increase. Gold in Chile is mined from primary gold mines and by-products of copper mines, silver mines and lead-zinc mines. According to the statistics of 1990, 72.6% of Chile's total gold production comes from primary gold mines and 27.4% comes from copper mines and other mines. Primary gold mines are mostly small and medium-sized mines, which are distributed in areas I-VI. There are 84 placer gold mines in China. 199 Chile produced 45.6 tons of gold, an increase of 4. 1% over the previous year, ranking 12 in the world.
The main gold mines are Indio Gold Mine (INDIO, operated by Canadian Latin American Mining Company), Petorca Bronce Gold Mine (operated by a private company in Chile), Chopuelimpie (public-private partnership), Weiso Gold Mine (Hueso, operated by a private Homestake company), Lakoipa Gold Mine (operated by a foreign joint venture) and San Cristobal.
Gold mines in Chile have great potential to increase production, because many gold mines, such as LaCoipa, El Refugio, Pascua/Nevada, Marti/Lobo, Elpenon and Codelco, have been under large-scale construction or expansion in recent years. According to the prediction of 22 mines, by 2003, Chile's gold output will reach 765,438 0.5 tons, an increase of 56.8% over 65,438 0.999 tons.
6. Silver
1996 Chile produced silver 1 130 tons, 1997 1088 tons, 1998 1336.8 tons, accounting for 8.2% of the world's total silver output. Silver in Chile is recovered as a by-product of copper and precious metal mines. The silver recovered from the mine of Chile Copper Company in 1992 was 2239 10 kg. Escondida copper mine produces 77,300 kilograms of silver, Lakoipa gold mine produces 496,000 kilograms of silver, Indio gold mine produces 565,438+0,000 kilograms of silver, Baishan copper mine produces 50,000 kilograms of silver and Chukirimopa gold mine produces 65,438+0,300 kilograms of silver. Various mines use electrolytic refining to recover silver from the cathode mud of crude copper or refined gold ingots. 1999 Chile produced silver 1379.9 tons, an increase of 3.2% over the previous year.
2. Trade in mineral products
Chile is an early country in Latin America to implement economic reform and opening up. Expanding the international market extensively and actively promoting free trade are both the guiding principles of Chile's economic work and the strategic focus of its diplomatic work. From 65438 to 0996, Chile joined the southern commercial market composed of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay as an associated country. Later, it signed free trade agreements with Canada and Mexico in the North American Free Trade Area. After the Lagos government came to power in March 2000, it continued to pursue a pluralistic and pragmatic foreign policy, and made promoting free trade the focus of economic diplomacy. In the past year, the Chilean government was very active in a series of "unilateral to multilateral" negotiations. While striving to join MERCOSUR as a full member, it also negotiated and signed a free trade agreement with the Central American Common Market, and conducted four rounds of negotiations with the European Union to conclude a free trade agreement. Chile began to negotiate and sign a free trade agreement with the United States in June 5438+February 2000.
In the process of promoting the free trade strategy, the Chilean government, according to its national conditions, has adopted such practices as "exchanging small for large" and "grasping large and releasing small", that is, exchanging small domestic markets for large international markets, so as to foster strengths and avoid weaknesses. In the process of mining opening to the outside world, Chile mainly mines copper and actively participates in international market competition.
Chile's economy depends largely on its international trade. According to the statistical report published by the Central Bank of Chile, Chile's foreign trade continued to develop at a high speed in 2000. Exports increased by 16.3%, reaching 1.8 1.58 billion US dollars, a record high, while imports from abroad increased by more than 20%, reaching1.673538+billion US dollars.
Chile's export market is widely distributed, and Asia and Europe are its largest regional markets. In 2000, the export to Asia reached US$ 5.6/kloc-0.70 billion, accounting for about 3 1% of the total export. The United States is its largest trading country, and its exports to the United States accounted for 17% of Chile's export revenue in 197, followed by Japan, Britain, Brazil and China, accounting for more than half of the total exports to the above five countries in 2000. In 2000, the export to China was US$ 907 million, up by 152.7%, among which the main export products were copper, cellulose and fish meal.
Copper and its by-products are Chile's traditional export minerals. From 65438 to 0999, Chile exported 4.237 million tons of copper, accounting for 40% of the world's total copper exports (see Table 3). Codelco plays an important role in Chile's export revenue. In the past six years, the average annual export of Codelco Company accounted for 65,438+08% of total export revenue, 3.4% of GDP and 8% of government revenue. 1997, only Codelco company exported copper concentrate10.4 million tons, with a revenue of 2.7 billion us dollars. Other companies exported 444 million dollars of copper and earned 329 million dollars of copper export by-products. The export income of copper and its by-products is * * * 3.473 billion US dollars. Besides copper, other mineral products exported by Chile include molybdenum, gold, iodine, iron ore, iron ore pellets, silver, sodium nitrate, lithium carbonate, molybdenum oxide, nitric acid, potassium salt and zinc. In recent years, the export of nitrate and iodine has increased rapidly. More than 60% of Chile's mineral products are exported through the ports of Antofagasta, Aarika, ChaNallard, Cijinbo, Iquique, San Vicente, Tal Cabano and Valparaiso.
Table 3 Export volume of various copper products in Chile in recent years Unit: 10,000 tons
Source: World Metal Statistics, August 2000.
In order to meet the growing domestic energy demand, Chile's oil and natural gas imports continue to grow. In the past 10 years, the demand for oil has doubled, while the output has decreased by two-thirds. Therefore, Chile imports 90% of its oil, 60% of which comes from Argentina. In 2000, the soaring oil price in the international market led to a substantial increase in Chile's expenditure on importing petroleum products. 1999 Chile's natural gas consumption is 3.3 billion m3, of which 2 billion m3 is imported from Argentina. Crude oil, refined oil and natural gas are transported to the consumption center through three pipelines with the length of 785km, 755km and 320km respectively. It is planned to build a pipeline with a diameter of 4. 1m and a length of 450km in the near future to transport the oil from Puesto hernandez oil field in Argentina to Talcahuano in Chile, and to build a natural gas pipeline with a length of 1200km between Neuquen gas field in Argentina and Santiago (Mineral Yearbook 1997).
Chile is short of coal, especially coking coal, and needs to import 4-5 million tons of coking coal every year.