Due to industrialization, mankind is faced with an enormous quantity of products, most of which end up as “waste” in the environment. There is an urgent need to switch from this linear production process to more sustainable strategies, for example through circular economy approaches, industrial ecology and eco-industrial development. Most research on eco-industrial development relates to manufacturing industries; studies on countries with extractive industries are rare. Chile is an interesting country in this respect, as it provides the basis for a wide variety of extractive processes due to its diverse natural environments, and at the same time also offers many different renewable energy sources. This chapter describes Chile's special natural features, which represent both potentials and challenges for eco-industrial approaches. It also discusses the socio-economic context within which these strategies are or should be embedded. This is followed by a reference to the thematic focus and structure of the IECO project and this book. Finally, we will attempt to specify the general understanding of eco-industrial development for Chile and also formulate normative claims in order to contribute to an expansion of the definition.