The mining industry has a leading role in a significant number of countries in the region. It is considered a strategic sector for its relevance as a motor for development. Between 2004 and 2009 the income from the sector as a percentage of GDP tripled in Latin American and the Caribbean, compared to the previous period, and subsequently continued growing albeit at a slower rate. In Chile in 2013 mining was the third sector according to its contribution of 11% to the GDP, while in the northern mining regions the mining industry represented between 36 and 57% of the regional product.
Large scale mining is marked by higher average salaries, the percentage of full-time jobs, and benefits which offer its workers conditions which are significantly more favorable tan the national average. In 2015 in Chile the monthly taxable income in the mining sector was higher than all the other sectors and more than double than the national average.
The incorporation of women in the mining industry in Andean countries has, nonetheless, been slow and faced multiple challenged, whereby the level of their participation is still relatively low according to information from the latest household surveys.