Industry Leaders

Gerente Técnico de Procesos, Vicepresidencia de Estrategia y Desarrollo, BHP Billiton Base Metals y Presidente de Hydroprocess 2012 Gerente Técnico de Procesos, Vicepresidencia de Estrategia y Desarrollo, BHP Billiton Base Metals y Presidente de Hydroprocess 2012

Sergio Castro

“As Chair of the Congress I am really interested in the participation of young people”

The Chair for the Hydroprocess 2012 conference underlined the importance of the participation of young professionals interested in integrating themselves into the mining market, before the immanent scarcity of professionals in the area occurs. “One of the largest problems that the mining industry has is human capital,” he said.

What motivated you to be the Chair for the Hydroprocess 2012 conference?
Well, what motivated me was the truth that for a long time I have been participating in conferences and on Gecamin´s technical committees, so, the truth is that a moment came when I realized I did not want to be always looking on from the margins. When they invited me to be the President of the conference, the truth is that I felt that it was time to say yes.

What is it about Hydroprocess this year that can be of interest to the public?
This year what we are trying to do is above all to incorporate the papers that have to do with hydrometallurgical treatments, not just of copper, but also to incorporate the other base metals, such as gold, and arsenic treatments, and we have some papers on caliche. This is one of the important aspects of the conference. The other, to me, as president of the conference, is the participation of young people, of the students and of the professionals of operations. I believe that this is the other big challenge that we have: to facilitate that the professionals that are in operations in different mining companies participate and come to share their experiences with us.

In parallel with the theme of the lack of professionals in mining, do you believe that this type of conference helps to promote the idea of working in this area?
This has to do to some extent with the motivation of the university students to participate. Some make use of the scholarships that Gecamin offers and they bring their master´s or doctoral projects. One of the big problems that the mining industry has is human capital.

What are the other challenges for the mining industry today that you identify?
The mining industry has an important challenge which is the aging of the mines. The aging of our sites is a fact, so progressively we have mineral deposits that are deeper every time, and more difficult to treat because they are more altered or they have more impurities, and with lower levels of copper. The cost effectiveness lowers and the industry usually responds with greater treatment levels. And to augment the volumes of treatment, we enter into the problems of infrastructure, size and personnel. I am genuinely concerned about the personnel with whom we are going to be operating the mining industry from the present to the next 15 years.