This paper analyzes the main results of a research on environmental governance in Latin America, held in Chile in relation to copper mining. Different sectors of economic and political elites of the country, as well as actors of civil society linked to the environmental movement were interviewed. The objective was to ascertain their level of knowledge and perceptions of global environmental issues and whether it was possible to perform an extractive activity within the parameters of sustainable development. Results were compared with those of previous studies and given that all social actors show a high and growing level of environmental awareness, it is proposed that ideology is a relevant variable to consider in terms of creating socio-environmental conflicts. Particularly among those who believe that it is feasible to achieve increasing levels of environmental and social sustainability in mining activity, facing those who absolutely reject this possibilityRegular 2015FONDECYTFONDECYT