Chilean mining stakeholders highlight role of collaboration for project success

Integration and cooperation from an early stage of a mining project are considered key to ensure successful execution, suppliers and mining industry players told the Proyectmin event in Santiago on Thursday.

These actions "avoid problems in construction, regardless of the role of engineering. There are projects that start with 45% engineering, others reach 60%," said Angiello Saffirio, assistant manager of R&Q Ingeniería, at the event hosted by PR firm B2B.

Eric Schmidt, deputy innovation manager at local company CBB Cales, which supplies close to 90% of the lime required by the copper industry, said joint participation from the beginning of a project favors the integration of all players involved and adding value.

Lime is essential for copper processes, as well as in the lithium industry and metallurgical plants, since "it modifies the PH so that the reactors can act in the process and a higher-grade concentrate can be produced," he said. 

Miguel Carrera, regional leader of Canadian digital solutions firm Mine Sense, warned about the lack of information that exists between a mine and a plant. He said the ShovelSense system provides data on the mineral content to better assess the grade of the material during excavation.

By determining the ore grade, it is possible to anticipate drops in production, make measurements and collect mineralogical information, in addition to recovering minerals in barren zones, Carrera said.

He also stressed the importance of collaboration. "The early involvement of suppliers, buyers, operators, dispatch personnel and other areas is key so that we are all aligned on the objective of a project."

MINERS IN CHILE

Pablo Carvallo, general manager of Glencore's Lomas Bayas copper mine, cited the recently launched Lomaslab initiative, which is a space for piloting technologies. In the pipeline is the testing of new drilling systems, automation solutions such as trucks and trolleys, and leaching tests to increase production that "will be scalable to all operations of the mining group."

Santiago Montt, CEO of Canadian miner Los Andes Copper, which owns the Vizcachitas greenfield project in Valparaíso region, expressed optimism regarding the global energy transition, which could lead to close to "US$100bn in new projects" in Chile, he said.

He also said that while greenfield projects are essentially a public-private activity, brownfield ones involve the private sector more, but in both cases permitting is a challenge. "The mayors [of municipalities] must see the investment as something beneficial, which, together with facilitating the obtaining of permits, will make it possible to advance more effectively in the joint realization of new projects," Montt told the event.