Chile’s copper industry wants to develop shale gas to help lower energy prices

After nearly a decade of paying the highest costs in South America, copper miners in the area are analyzing the use and consumption of shale gas in their processes.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently published a report which revealed that Chile could hold the third largest reserves of the unconventional fuel in South America.

According to the Santiago media several companies have approached Chile’s Ministry of Energy to explore the possibility of signing Special Contracts of Petroleum Operations (CEOP), similar to those ruling the other end of the country, in the Magallanes Region, which regulate the grating of royalties to extract the resource.

The idea is to develop the country's shale gas industry, which will produce natural gas from shale rock by bombarding it with water and chemicals in a technique known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking.”

According to estimations from the IEA, Chile has 64 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of the fuel, mostly in the south. Although lower than neighbouring countries Argentina (774 TCF, the third largest reserve in the world) and Brazil (226 TCF), the amount Chile has is more than enough to place the country among the group of 32 nations the IEA identified as having significant reserves of this gas with commercial potential.

In recent weeks, experts have warned that Chile, the top copper producer in the world, will not be able to keep mining for the red metal, gold and other minerals if the country doesn’t find a solution to their pressing energy needs.

Currently, Chile imports about 98% of all the fossil fuels it uses. Shale gas production, which has seen a boon in recent years in the US, Canada and China could eventually relieve some of that burden.

Chile’s Ministry of Energy recognizes that the lack of information about shale gas reserves in the country, particularly in the northern area, are diverting investments and making the application process difficult.

However, Centre for Copper and Mining Studies (CESCO) representatives are pressing the Chilean government to speed up permit applications as, they say, the country needs cheaper and more reliable power to mine the country's vast copper reserves, which comprise a third of the world's red metal.