This project from the University of La Serena supports the strengthening of capacities required by small miners.

With the objective of contributing to the sustainability of small mining operations in the Coquimbo Region, the University of La Serena launched the project “Improvement of management in small mining”, financed by the Innovation Fund for Competitiveness of the Regional Government (FIC-R). The initiative benefits small mining companies with the construction of a mobile metallurgical control laboratory.

The project began in 2018, a period in which we worked together with mining union associations from La Higuera, La Serena, Andacollo, Ovalle, Punitaqui, among others; in addition to ENAMI and the Regional Secretary of Mining.

The Director of the Department of Mining Engineering, Dr. Ing. Alberto Cortés, indicated that “we are developing different projects in our Department; one of them is the FIC-R which is intended to improve the management capacity of small miners. This project is of special importance for the region, since it is an economic sector made up mainly of family businesses made up of a maximum of six workers, who compete with equal prices with respect to medium and large mining companies."

The Energy Seremi of the Coquimbo Region, Álvaro Herrera, stated that “miners are at the heart of the Coquimbo Region, and we want to have initiatives that directly support the management and development of projects, both small and and medium mining”.

Catalina de la Cuadra, a graduate of Civil Engineering in Mining, wrote her Degree Report on the metallurgical laboratory, indicating that “I am very happy and proud to contribute to this great initiative, the idea is to later provide services in the small plants. miners, support them, analyze their processes and deliver the results so that they can improve their concentrates.”

Meanwhile, Edison Ramírez, academic from the Department of Mining Engineering of the ULS, in relation to the initiative, stressed that "this laboratory will allow the plants to minimize losses in their internal processes, reducing their costs and in turn obtain better income.”

By María José Barraza, FIULS 2030 Project