2182 STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF THE LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN COPPER CONCENTRATE TRADE NETWORK *Maria Valeria Aguinaga Fonseca1 1Technology Management, Economics and Policy Program, Seoul National University, (*Presenting author: mvaleriaaguinaga@gmail.com) ABSTRACT Copper is a critical mineral underpinning the global energy transition, with demand projected to grow steadily under electrification and decarbonization scenarios. At the same time, structural supply constraints and increasing geopolitical concentration have intensified concerns regarding trade resilience and mineral governance (IEA, 2025). While Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) plays a central role in global copper concentrate supply, its structural positioning within global trade networks remains insufficiently examined beyond aggregate export indicators. The objective of this research is to provide structural, networkbased evidence on LAC’s positioning within the global copper concentrate trade network, with the aim of informing strategic decision-making, trade coordination, and mineral policy in the context of rising demand for critical minerals. Using a longitudinal Social Network Analysis (SNA) of bilateral trade data (HS 2603) from UN Comtrade and BACI for the period 2010–2024, the study models countries as nodes and trade flows as weighted, directed edges. Network metrics—including weighted out-degree, betweenness centrality, clustering coefficients, and modularity-based community detection—are applied to identify structural roles and patterns of global embedding. The results indicate increasing network centralization and consolidation around dominant demand hubs, with LAC exporters integrated into global communities rather than forming a cohesive regional cluster. Differentiated structural roles emerge among key exporters, reflecting scaledriven, brokerage, and autonomous positioning within the network. These findings provide system-level evidence relevant to discussions on critical mineral governance, trade alignment, and strategic coordination under conditions of accelerating energy transition demand. KEYWORDS Copper, trade networks, Latin America, Social Network Analysis 1. INTRODUCTION Copper is a critical mineral for the global energy transition, playing a central role in renewable energy technologies, electrification systems, and low-carbon infrastructure. Recent assessments indicate that declining ore grades, rising production costs, and a slowdown in new resource discoveries are intensifying structural constraints in the copper market, reinforcing concerns about long-term supply security (IEA, 2025). In this context, the resilience, transparency, and strategic governance of mineral supply chains have become central concerns for policymakers, industry actors, and international organizations (Lebdioui, 2022). While China has consolidated its position as the world’s largest metallurgical and processing hub, it remains structurally dependent on imported raw materials sourced from a limited number of producing regions, including LAC, Africa, and Indonesia (IEA, 2025; Fernandez, 2024). In this context, rising demand for critical raw materials also presents an opportunity for mineral- and metal-exporting countries to increase trade revenues while addressing broader socio-economic development needs (Atakhanova et al., 2025). Against this backdrop, understanding how producing regions are structurally embedded within global trade networks is essential for assessing vulnerabilities, dependencies, and strategic leverage. The existing literature on LAC’s copper and mining sectors has largely relied on macroeconomic indicators, production volumes, export values, and bilateral trade statistics to evaluate regional performance (Tercero & Soulier, 2016; Casanova et al. 2016; Alessandri, 2021). While informative, these approaches provide limited insight into the relational structure of trade flows and are insufficient to capture structural dependencies,
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