2609
EU-Latin America Partnership on Raw Materials
The mining sector gives a vital contribution to the Latin American and European Union economies. It not only provides substantial amounts of revenues and jobs, directly or via its supply 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. On the other hand, it faces multiple challenges, such as the difficulty to cope with lower commodity prices, the need to respect high social and environmental standards or the necessity to meet more exacting customer requests.
It is in the mutual interest of Latin American countries and the EU to exploit the full potential of the extractive industries, both as contributors to the local economies and as suppliers to the sectors of the future, and to do so in a socially, environmentally and economically sustainable way, in full alignment with the UN Sustainable Developments Goals.
A consortium led by Projekt-Consult has the mandate to translate this shared interest into practice by developing and establishing a network platform for continuous and structured cooperation between EU and seven Latin American partner countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay): the Mineral Development Network Platform (MDNP).
The aim of the MDNP is to bring together all relevant stakeholders from entities and disciplines linked to the non-energy extractive industries in the EU and the participating Latin American countries. On the basis of a comprehensive analysis of the extractive sectors in both continents, the MDNP was designed to enable spaces for networking, information gathering and exchange of best-practices. It thereby supports a continuous and structured cooperation between the EU and Latin America, reinforcing dialogue, promoting cutting-edge technologies, strengthening business, institutional and academic ties and opening new business prospects, thus leading to win-win situations between the two strategic partners.
Since 2020, the project has organised yearly conferences. Year 2020 and 2021 were held online, and in 2022 the EU-Latin American Convention on Raw Materials met in person in Santiago, Chile. More than 200 partners from EU and Latin America met in person, gathered firsthand information, engaged in discussions and promoted their technologies, companies and organizations. The following 2023 EU-Latin American Convention on Raw Materials will be held in May 22nd -24th in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
For more information about the partnership or upcoming events please visit: www.mineralplatform.eu
