The Role of Critical Minerals Demand in Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Latin America

This study examines the projected demand for critical minerals in Latin America, such as copper, cobalt, lithium, and graphite, and evaluates their contribution to the region's sustainable development goals (SDGs) using the novel Sequential Interactive Modelling for Urban Systems (SIMUS) methodology. As Latin America undergoes an energy transition, these minerals play a vital role in technologies supporting clean energy, urban infrastructure, and sustainable industrial practices. The study ranks these minerals based on their unweighted and SDG-weighted contributions, identifying copper and nickel as particularly significant for goals like affordable energy (SDG 7), climate action (SDG 13), and sustainable cities (SDG 11). The analysis also highlights the importance of sustainable mining and resilient supply chains to meet the growing demand, especially for lithium, which is crucial for energy storage and electric vehicles. The study's findings underscore how minerals interrelate in achieving SDGs, demonstrating how copper, for example, addresses energy poverty by enabling affordable electricity access. The SIMUS framework provides insights into strategic resource prioritization, enabling policymakers to align mineral demand with economic and environmental sustainability goals in Latin America.