Interesting, unique and extensive. This is how professionals from the Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia, Odmaa Enkhbayar and Manlai Purevdorj, who are doing an internship at the state copper company, describe Codelco División El Teniente, an initiative that marks the beginning of the international internships promoted by Codelco, Río Tinto and Aurubis.

During March and April, Odmaa, who is the Production Engineering Superintendent at Oyu Tolgoi, and Manlai, a senior geotechnical engineer at the same Rio Tinto mine site, have toured the underground mine and also learned about the open-pit operations at Rajo Sewell, in addition to the Andes Norte, Diamante and Andesita projects.

“It has been a wonderful experience, it is a very large, massive mine, where people work together, it is very interesting and unique,” says Odmaa. “It is very different from what we are used to. For example, the entrances are very different, we do not have entrances like the ADIT (access tunnels to the mining works), but we use elevators and many of the concepts are different, it is a totally new experience. El Teniente has many challenges, that makes people here very experienced and, at the same time, humble, that impressed me a lot.”

Manlai agrees with the assessment. “The natural conditions that El Teniente faces are very challenging, as a geotechnical engineer I can appreciate that, and the way the mines are around the pipe is something very unique. The people are very experienced in the geotechnical field, in caving, in seismic issues and in how they implement measures to reduce risks.”

Knowledge sharing

The internship program is developed within the framework of the “Río de Cobre Innovation Collaboration Agreement”, signed between Codelco and Río Tinto, a multinational mining company with a presence in 35 countries, and whose purpose is to create more value for people and business, strengthening instances of exchange of information, knowledge and experiences that allow generating value for current and future operations and projects.

One thing that both Manlai and Odmaa agree on is that they recommend that professionals from anywhere in the world travel to Chile to learn about the operations of Codelco División El Teniente.