Cheered by legions of young Chilean supporters waving flags and banners, Gabriel Boric vaulted over a metal barricade and leapt on to a stage to address his victory rally on Sunday night.
“I receive this mandate with humility”, the leftist former student politician said solemnly. “I know that the future of our country is at stake.” Aged just 35, he will be the youngest elected leader in Chile’s history after a barnstorming election win against right-wing rival José Antonio Kast.
Although Boric vows to be a president for all, there is one community he has little time for: Chile’s mining industry, which has become a chief target of his firebrand campaign. The controversial industry is dominant in the South American country, currently representing an estimated 10pc of its GDP and half of total exports.
Chile also boasts the world’s biggest reserves of copper and lithium, two of the minerals that are set to power the shift to green energy. The election of the left-wing leader who holds such contempt against mining companies has fueled fears of a disruption to the West’s copper supplies – a metal vital to growth.
For the rest of this article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/12/22/chiles-new-left-wing-leader-fuels-fears-disruption-global-copper/