The mining bottleneck in the region where Chile has an advantage over Argentina

Chile decided to invest in a nationwide transmission project: the State defined the goalsthat is, the 2023-2027 energy planning and the 2025 Transmission Expansion Plan, and the private sector executes it.

Argentina, meanwhile, continues to support a good part of its deep-sea mining with diesel generators (one of the most expensive ways to generate energy)and when a network need appears, it ends up being resolved project by project, con a single mining company paying for the expansion in exchange for priority use.

The Chilean response has its own name and numbers: Kimal-Lo Aguirre, the first high voltage direct current transmission line of the history of the trans-Andean country. It connects the Kimal substation, in the María Elena commune, in the Antofagasta Region, with Lo Aguirre, in the Pudahuel commune, in the Metropolitan Region: 1,346 kilometers long and a capacity of up to 3,000 MW.

Meanwhile, in Argentina there is currently no transmission project equivalent to the Chilean one in the pipeline for mining areas. The case of Vicuña, in the province of San Juan, illustrates well this difference in scale and method.

Unlike the Chilean model, here it is the mining company itself, the joint-venture between the mining giant BHP and the Canadian Lundin Mining with RIGI approved US$ 9,712 millionwhich offers to finance the expansion of the network from 132 kV to 500 kV between the stations in the towns of Nueva San Juan and Rodeo, in exchange for priority use over it. That request was weathered for other projects that will also demand energy and that is why it was discussed at a public hearing in June. Now, ENReGE, the regulatory body, is the one who has the power to give the final verdict about the case.

The Chilean line, which requires an investment of around US$ 1,480 million and foresees its entry into operation in 2029, it crosses five regions (Antofagasta, Atacama, Coquimbo, Valparaíso and Metropolitana) and 28 communes, with 2,692 high voltage towers. The construction started at the beginning of this year by the Conexión Energía consortium, composed in equal parts of Transelec, ISA Interchile and the subsidiary of China Southern Power Grid.

The objective is to evacuate the renewable energy (solar, especially)which today is generated in the north and is often discharged due to lack of transmission capacity, and take it to the center of the country, where mining and industrial demand is concentrated.

On the other side of the mountain range, in high-altitude operations in Argentina, diesel thermal generation continues to be the basis of electricity supply. Companies are adding solar and storage, but as a complement, not as a replacement. Energy consumption is between main operating costs of the sectorjust when lithium and copper are the most active expansion fronts and require expanding supply capacity.

The Chilean-Argentine contrast is not an isolated case: it is the clearest version of a problem that affects all Latin American mining. The distance between the mine and the electrical grid is, according to the study by the energy specialist firm Aggreko, “The new mining equation in Latin America” (2026), the structural bottleneck common to the region. What changes is how each country tries to solve it.

The report, prepared from 21 interviews with professionals in the sector in six countries, describes Mexico with strong dependence on hydrocarbons and gas imported from Texas and with a new plan underway that aims at photovoltaic development; to Ecuador with a mostly hydroelectric matrixwith a low carbon footprint, but high climate vulnerability.

Also, the case of Brazil, with long distances and precarious logistics in the Amazon. There, the “Energies of the Amazon” program seeks to replace diesel with renewables, while in Minas Gerais the obstacle is population density rather than distance.

Meanwhile, In Peru, the challenge is as social as it is energeticwith expansion of lines to Andean and Amazonian areas via the 2023-2032 Transmission Plan, renewable certifications such as that of the large Las Bambas copper mine, and additional tension due to the interaction with communities and protected areas, and due to the presence of informal mining linked to illicit activities.