While the hilltop overlook here boasts a splendid view of the Pacific coast, the land all around us is far less impressive.

Municipal garbage trucks rumble along gravel roads to an adjacent landfill. Stumps and branches of dead eucalyptus trees form huge piles, refuse left behind by a former commercial forestry operation.

Aclara Resources, the Toronto-listed company that brought us here, has a new plan for the site: sustainably mining “rare earth” elements, essential ingredients in the energy transition. Once these elements are removed, the company plans to revegetate the area with native trees, a state it has not existed in for many decades, part of a process it calls “circular mineral harvesting.”

The plan would generate jobs and underpin a whole new local industry at a time when other aging industries have closed down, according to Aclara.

“This could turn us into a pillar of the regional economy,” said Nelson Donoso, who heads Aclara’s operations in Chile.

Read more in Cipher News here.

The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.