Increasing responsibility and sustainability in Latin American and Caribbean mining

Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries will be key suppliers of the minerals needed for the energy transition. However, the progress and scaling up of this activity could replicate the same practices of fossil fuel extractive industries, which have had negative impacts on the environment, biodiversity and the human rights of local communities. Recognizing that any individual company in the mineral supply chain, or local actor in the areas of mineral extraction, has limited possibilities to effect positive change unilaterally is key, so a coordinated regional effort to ensure sustainability, justice and the future of the desired energy transition is necessary.

The MARS program, which is currently in a design phase, proposes to address several key challenges at specific mining sites, but simultaneously shared across the region. It will promote a fairer and more inclusive mining dialogue by producing holistic and scientific social and environmental data, facilitating dialogue and increasing the capacity building of disadvantaged rights holders. The results of local interventions will be shared across the region through cross-border peer-to-peer mechanisms and the development and exchange of best practices, thereby driving increased sustainability standards in Latin American mining.

The design phase will aim to define the requirements and scope of Impact Projects based on the Result Based Management (RBM) approach. These Impact Projects should be replicable along the region and should build local capacities to allow and empower local stakeholders to achieve acceptable conditions for the coexistence of mining business, environment and communities. 

SEI will lead the Impact Project related to lithium in the Andean Altiplano salt-flats, with focus in Argentina and Bolivia, where it will promote the Integrated Water Resources Modeling and Management experience carried out in the Salar de Atacama basin during 2020 and 2021, where the SEI supported the Centro de Cambio Global of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. The main objective of this Impact Project will be to support the decision-making process regarding water resources in salt-flat basins where the brine demand pace has overcome the technical capacities and bureaucratic processes to ensure a sustainable mining activity development with special focus on the complex ecosystems and communities that exist in these basins.

To achieve this, SEI will promote a participatory process to develop analytical tools coupling the WEAP and MODFLOW models, process that will include trainings to even the technical and modeling capacities, allowing every actor to understand the co-developed tool and how different actions may affect the water resources system. The SEI team has already held several meetings with organizations that could help in the organization and gathering of information in Argentina and Bolivia for the future success of the Impact Project, along with meetings with local organizations of the Salar de Atacama basin, whose experience regarding the good and the bad things about the process are expected to be considered to enhance the process. 

Partners

• The International Council of Swedish Industry (NIR)
• Centro Vincular – Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (CV) 
• Grupo de Diálogo sobre Minería en Colombia (GDIAM)