Background

The mining sector gives a vital contribution to the Latin American (LA) and European Union (EU) economies. It not only provides substantial revenues and jobs, directly or via its industrial value chains, but also supplies the raw materials which are essential for fast-growing, cutting-edge sectors such as renewable energy, fuel-efficient transportation or smart technologies. The extractive sectors face multiple challenges, such as the difficulty to cope with lower commodity prices, the need to comply the more and more with high social and environmental standards or the necessity to meet more exacting customer requests.

It is in the mutual interest of Latin America and the EU to unlock the full potential of the extractive industries for the society, both as contributors to the local economies and as essential suppliers to the industrial value chains, as well as contributors to the United Nations’ Sustainable Developments Goals. The will for this co-operation is grounded on the mutual recognition and commitment with the values of responsible and sustainable mining.

Therefore, the EU and Latin America have stated their shared interest in intensifying the co-operation within the extractive industries on the basis of their complementarities, common objectives and shared values. This co-operation aims to overcoming challenges and foster economic growth. This has been the scene setter to the EU-Latin America Raw Materials Diplomacy Dialogues, starting in 2014.

Find out more about the EU-Latin America Raw Materials Diplomacy events.

The Mineral Development Network Platform represents one concrete action to translate into practice the will to move towards a structured co-operation between the EU and seven Latin American partner countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay) on the extractive sectors.