When thinking of a balance for the year 2020, the feeling is that of a paradox.

We were pushed into an unknown and unthinkable situation such as self-confinement, which lasted for several months, we saw the economy collapse in just a few weeks and many people suffered the impact of overcrowding, lack of income, illness, and death.

Others, more fortunate, try to adapt to new circumstances governed by unprecedented uncertainty.

Cesco is a non-profit organization based in Chile. It was founded in 1984 as an organization of professionals interested in promoting public policies in the field of mining in those countries in which the activity is strategic for its development. Also, we monitor and provide information and analysis and support different activities to promote dialogue between members of the industry and beyond. Our best known public events are Cesco Week Santiago and Asia Copper Week, which have constituted the main income of the institution.

In these months of the pandemic, along with adapting to a lower income as a result of the replacement of our face-to-face events with meetings through online platforms, we have focused on strengthening our activities in the field of advocacy and increasing our presence in the Andean region.

This is how we present the study “Towards a mining 4.0. Recommendations to promote an intelligent national industry ”, led by the consultant and member of Cesco, Juan Ignacio Guzmán, who makes a detailed analysis of the status of adoption of new technologies in the national mining industry, as well as lists the barriers to adoption both within companies, industry, academia and the public sector.

Likewise, we carried out the study “Technological Revolution in the Large Copper Mining in the Andean region”, led by the also consultant and member of the Cesco Board, Osvaldo Urzúa, with the support of GIZ.  The results will be presented during the next month. We believe that this work will be a contribution, both for the private and public sectors, as it provides a different perspective on this issue since technologies for sustainability that are actively impacting the different mining footprints were also included.

The work of a multidisciplinary group of professionals from different universities, companies, and consultancies led by Cesco director Iván Valenzuela, promoted the initiative published in the document “Refined copper: a good business for Chile”, whose dissemination has opened a conversation around the convenience that our country has a new smelter to process complex concentrates and other minerals as an industrial business, different from mining and that allows our country to fully enter into the 21st century, low-emission and circular mining.

On the other hand, a mining and circular economy working group was also created, led by Carlos Rebolledo, a member of Cesco, in alliance with Sofofa Hub and with the help of several mining companies, which will soon start some pilot projects to reuse smelter tires and slag.

Finally, a group was also formed, led by the lawyer Cristián Quinzio, a member of Cesco who, together with other lawyers and professionals, will evaluate the implications for mining activity in the drafting of a constitution for Chile.

On behalf of Cesco, I thank all the institutions that have collaborated with us, CRU, EY, the Vantaz group, the Catholic University, the University of Concepción and the University of Chile, Corporación Alta Ley, the IGF, GIZ, and other international organizations, and all the professionals who have invested their valuable time in participating in the working groups and have promoted these different collaborative initiatives that are so valuable for our country sector.

I wish you all happy holidays and we are going for more this 2021.