Presented in association with Bofill Mir & Alvarez Jana Abogados
For the past three decades, Chile has earned and maintained a reputation as a rich, stable and market-oriented country. In a recent webinar moderated by Shawn Doyle, Mr. Doyle, together with speakers, Pablo Mir, Guillermo Fonseca and Jorge Velasquez outline the shifting political landscape of Chile, the process to draft the country's new Constitution and certain pending legislation, describing the effects that these may have on the mining industry. They tackle both discrete and general questions, including:
- What process is engaged in drafting the Constitution, and what proportion of the country must approve the new text?
- What legislative proposals will likely be advanced if a more left-aligned legislature emerges from the coming election?
- What is the royalty proposal that has been introduced by the Lower House? Is the new royalty a tax or an extraction royalty?
- How will the new Constitution impact taxation? What requirements for profit distribution may be implemented, and is tax stabilization available to mining companies?
- How will the tax regime address complaints that isolated areas in Chile do not benefit from centralized taxation? If a new approach is adopted to address these complaints, will mining companies play a more limited role in supplementing or replacing government social programs in the isolated areas in which they operate?
- What legal approaches to water regulation and glacier protection are being considered? How will these impact new tailings ponds, the desalination industry, and other technical requirements relevant to the mining industry?
- Does the shifting political landscape need to be included in the "risk factors" for a prospectus?
For responses to these questions and more, access the 'Recent Legal and Political Developments in Chile' webinar recording.
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