What is your job about?

The Mining Resources and Development Department (GRMD) has the role of overseeing all aspects of the exploitation plan and ensuring its correct execution. My role, in particular, is associated with the planning and updating of permits, where I must execute environmental and sectoral files, in synergy with other areas and departments, to integrate the development of the processes in the best way.

Specifically, I am in the Water and Tailings Planning Superintendency of the GRMD, but as I am involved in permits, my work is very transversal with the different areas, since, to operate, we need all these authorizations, which also allow the development of the production plans that we commit to.

What have been the main challenges in your work?

There are many assets that are many years old and that makes the operation itself an intense challenge, since we must always continue to improve in accordance with the updated regulations and requirements of the authority. This implies that we must also be flexible in what we commit to and obtain as development, in order to have coherence in all our activities, between the different areas.

What do you like most about your job?

The dynamism and the challenges it entails, because I am always seeing new things, there are always new processes and also always meeting new people, working as a team, learning different things from different specialties.

How did you get to the Division?

I arrived in 2018, to a partner company. In 2021, I joined Codelco. I am from Curacaví, and I had not heard about El Teniente until I grew up. Curacaví is not known for being a mining town, it is known for sweets and chicha, it is much more agricultural. My family was very proud, I grew up with my grandparents. There is not much known about mining, but everyone knows Codelco.

What has the El Teniente Division given you?

El Teniente is a school, it has many processes, I think that few mines in Chile have the capacity of the Division, which in addition to the underground mine, has an open pit mine, plants of different types, a foundry, solvent extraction, operational dams, old dams, so it allows you to learn about different topics.

Furthermore, being here is a source of pride, because we contribute to making something better for the country and giving the best we can, with the awareness that what we do is not for a company, but for all the people of the country and not just for those who live in mining areas.

What safety message would you give to the workers at El Teniente?
That from our different roles, we must all contribute, that we do not forget that our main focus is safety, in everything we do and everything we see. There is always something new that we can contribute, give our opinion on and improve in terms of safety. Let us not allow things to become commonplace, let us always have the desire to be looking and thinking differently.