Paraguay wants to ride the wave of critical minerals

Paraguay wants to position itself on the map of companies and investors as a new frontier to be explored in the critical minerals segment.

“We are at a moment when Paraguay may begin to exploit these natural resources, mainly uranium and titanium and, in the future, lithium or rare earths,” said Mauricio Bejarano, the country’s deputy minister of Mines and Energy, during the opening of the 2nd Mining Forum.

According to Bejarano, as part of Paraguay’s efforts to advance in the critical minerals sector, President Santiago Peña is promoting a robust regulatory framework.

“We are already evaluating with the president himself the submission of the Mining Code, which will be a new mining legislation based on the world’s best practices and which may serve to provide guarantees and legal certainty for mining investments in the Republic of Paraguay,” he said.

Paraguay wants to join South American countries such as Chile, Peru, Argentina and Brazil, all with a high volume of reserves of various critical minerals, which have attracted growing global interest amid the search for diversification of supply chains.

In Paraguay’s case, besides taking advantage of the strong appetite of global investors for critical minerals, the country also wants to replicate in the mining sector the interest that some segments of the economy have been attracting in recent years, amid economic policies considered favorable to private investors, as well as lower energy and labor costs.