SANTIAGO – The assembly in charge of drafting a new Constitution in Chile rejected on Saturday, in the last day of voting, important reforms to the mining industry, among which was the strengthening of state ownership in the deposits of the world’s largest copper producer.
Article 27, which originally gave the state exclusive mining rights over lithium, rare metals and hydrocarbons and a majority stake in copper mines, faced strong opposition from the mining sector and had already been rejected last week.
The environment commission put multiple variations of the article to a vote before the plenary session of the assembly on Saturday afternoon, but they were also rejected.
The plenary, however, authorized statements on “equitable and non-discriminatory access to energy”, the status of the beaches and the protection of the Chilean Antarctic territory, among others.
“Glaciers, protected areas, those established by law for reasons of hydrographic protection, and others that it declares will be excluded from all mining activities,” says one of the paragraphs that received the green light.
The approved articles will be the last to be included in the draft of the new Magna Carta, which starting next week will be in the hands of a harmonization commission that will review the wording and coherence of the normative body.
The final draft is due in early July and citizens will vote to approve or reject the text on September 4 in a mandatory referendum.
The environmental commission managed to get only one of its 40 initial proposals approved in the first vote before the plenary session in early March. Since then, the group has moderated its proposals, but even so, it obtained norms on the rights of nature, access to water and on the responsibility of the State in the fight against climate change, among others.
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