Chile's Atacama Mining Towns Are Becoming Battery Manufacturing Hubs as Copper Revenues Decline

Rather than exporting raw lithium carbonate and watching value accrue elsewhere in the battery supply chain, Chile has used state investment and preferential licensing to build cathode and cell manufacturing capacity in the mining communities of Antofagasta and Calama — creating 14,000 permanent industrial jobs in towns that had been contracting since copper prices peaked in 2022.