This task force report reflects the authors’ understanding of key points made in the course of the roundtables. It does not necessarily represent the views of the Center on Global Energy Policy. The piece may be subject to further revision.
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CGEP’s Visionary Annual Circle
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Corporate Partnerships
Occidental Petroleum Corporation
Tellurian Inc.
Foundations and Individual Donors
Anonymous
Anonymous
Aphorism Foundation
the bedari collective
Children’s Investment Fund Foundation
David Leuschen
Mike and Sofia Segal
Kimberly and Scott Sheffield
Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust
Ray Rothrock
Top discussion points:
- Chile is the world’s largest producer of copper, a key player in lithium production, and the country with the largest reserves of both—materials necessary for the global energy transition.
- Two roundtables in the summer of 2025 highlighted the absence of a coherent, long-term state strategy in Chile for resource governance and the lack of formal regulation of negotiations between mining companies and communities, resulting in case-by-case arrangements.
- Participants noted the limited presence of the Chilean state in planning, regulating, and coordinating such negotiations, as well in providing an independent third-party assessment of hydrological balances and water use, particularly for lithium production.
- These roundtable discussions suggest the need for a more active presence of the Chilean State, including to frame a long-term resource strategy and a clear legal and regulatory framework for benefit-sharing mechanisms involving state institutions, companies, and host communities.
- Roundtable participants said that new benefit-sharing mechanisms and processes in the case of lithium are more advanced than legacy copper projects, and that a review of best practices of lithium negotiations should be done to inform a more comprehensive benefit-sharing framework applicable to other mining sectors as well.
