Principal Geoscientist QAQC, Geoscience Centre of Excellence, BHP.

Chilean Geologist, MBA and Geo-Mining-Metallurgical Specialization, with 18 years of international experience in the mining and exploration industry in South America and Australia, and various commodities such as Copper, Gold and Iron Ore. He has held positions across the geoscience value chain including Exploration, Mine, Geotechnical, Geochemical and Modelling Geoscience and has attained superintendent/principal seniority.

In 2004 he joined BHP, and has worked in various roles related to Sampling and QAQC, initially at the world’s largest copper mine Escondida (Chile), and since 2012 in the largest Iron Ore province in the world, The Pilbara (Western Australia). His involvement in sampling and QAQC has mainly been focused on an operational perspective, including all of the logistics required to ensure the quality of the information used in exploration and mining, through the implementation of QAQC routines (sampling protocols, drilling process, sample collection, sample preparation, sample analysis, chain of custody and contract management with commercial laboratories) as applied on “big scale” RC and diamond drilling programs and blasthole sampling (>1000 samples per day).

He has worked on projects involving the assessment of new technology applied to sampling and analysis (in situ downhole tools, hyperspectral imaging), where QAQC plays a key role to 1) understand/quantify the methodology to be replaced (baseline), 2) define a QAQC plan to understand/quantify the performance of new technology, 3) quantify and evaluate the benefits and 4) define a sustainable QAQC process to ensure the quality of the new technology.

Within BHP he’s participated in internal audit on sampling and QAQC in different commodities such as Nickel and Alumina, acquiring experience a.o. used to develop an operative QAQC training course focused on day-to-day QAQC requirements, logistical challenges, exploration requirements, mine requirements and management of geological samples which has been delivered in Chile, Peru and Australia. Since 2011, he’s been actively working with the World Conference on Sampling and Blending (WCSB) scientific committee (2011-2013-2017), editorial committee (2013) and publications (2011-2015-2017). Currently working in the Geoscience Centre of Excellence, he provides guidelines and support on QAQC across all BHP assets, is developing related standards and facilitates the sharing of good practices.