A successful day in which 20 companies showed their most advanced technologies in remote operation and automation was held at the Coya Country Club, during the presentation stage of the “Zero Exposure Mine” challenge, promoted by Codelco El Teniente Division.

“We went to the market to explain our needs, especially in deep mining, where the challenges are much greater and where we are looking for a mine with zero exposure for people,” explains Ignacio Cruz, Innovation Director of Codelco El Teniente Division. “We received many proposals and selected 20, which we attended to individually during this session, together with a great support team from the Mines, Mine Works, Projects Vice-Presidency and Head Office managements.”

Thus, Cruz explains, already knowing the technological offer on the market, “the next step is to carry out an exhaustive analysis, see which ones can generate the most value for the Division and carry out the tests in order to implement them in the future.”

Making a difference

Each company had 15 minutes to individually present its proposals and technological solutions to a multidisciplinary team of professionals. The attendees valued the initiative and highlighted the joint work between suppliers and Codelco.

“It was a very good opportunity that gave us the opportunity, in a quick way, to show what we have, beyond what exists here at the mine. There is a lot of interest in these issues and we saw this in this activity, mainly in eliminating people's exposure to places where there are risks and generating greater security,” said Guido Bobadilla, manager of the Underground Mining Business Line for the Southern Cone, at Epiroc.

Gardilcic's Director of Works, Nelson Vásquez, stated that "although we are a company focused on construction, we also see opportunities to safeguard the safety of workers to mitigate exposure on the work fronts. We want to project ourselves into the future and Codelco, in that sense, makes the difference."

Rodolfo Ramos, Product Line Director of Normet, said that the meeting “was very interesting, with a very open dialogue between the parties. I think that these spaces are always positive, because they help develop the industry. The idea is, in the future, to jointly develop a roadmap to implement mitigation measures to eliminate risks to people in critical areas.”