LEGAL STABILITY Condition of the laws and regulations between a state and private entities that postulates that the legal and tax conditions will be maintained in status quo for the duration of the validity of the investment contracts. This is particularly true in the case of mining, whose usual cycle is 15 years, 5 years of investment, 5 of production and 5 of remittances of profits, where 10 years of term are required to withdraw profits. A notable example of this necessary basis for investment is when the Minister of Economy of Chile, Peñailillo decides to repeal the DFL600 (Decree with Force of Law that constituted the Statute of Foreign Investment) for the mere fact of having been signed by Augusto Pinochet, without simultaneously generating another substitute decree, automatically produced a sharp reduction in such inflows, and Chile went for the first time in history to cede its first place in world copper production to Peru, where legal stability had been lower up to that point, although costs, such as water, energy and labor, were more favorable. With Peru's legal stability aggravated, Chile regained its place.
