Colombian mining companies launch Copper Innovation HUB

With the support of the Chilean company Quintil Valley, the initiative seeks to articulate good practices and contribute to the energy transition and responsible industrialization.

In the presence of the Colombian Minister of Mines and Energy, Irene Vélez, and within the framework of the “National Mining Congress – Energy, Life and Future”, organized by the Colombian Mining Association, Quintil Valley launched the Copper Innovation HUB, a project that brings together nine mining companies and organizations from Chile, Peru, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia, and Colombia.

Quintil Valley informed that the ceremony was also attended by the Australian ambassador, Erika Thompson; the Swedish ambassador, Helena Storm; the commercial director of ProChile Colombia, Marcela Aravena; the president of the ACM, Juan Camilo Nariño; and the general manager of Quintil Valley, Walter Rosenthal, who signed on behalf of the new copper innovation hub.

COPPER INNOVATION HUB

The HUB, an initiative created and operated by Quintil Valley, is an associative program that brings together Colombian copper mining companies and national and international partners, who seek, through innovation and collaboration, to articulate good practices, contribute to the energy transition and responsible, inclusive, participatory and knowledge-intensive industrialization; integrated with the needs of Colombia and the world, and above all with our communities and the environment.

The Minister of Mining and Energy, Irene Vélez, said “the energy transition is urgent to decarbonize the economy, to meet our climate change commitments. We have proposed to develop a Mining For Life, which is participatory, inclusive, and responds to the opportunities of the Energy Transition with high environmental and social standards”.

Juan Camilo Nariño, president of the Colombian Mining Association, said that “clean energies demand minerals that our country has in the subsoil, and in this sense, a solid mining industry that invests in their exploration and production responsibly and sustainably is needed”.

He added that “a viable and safe energy transition requires an unrestricted commitment to sustainability, the fight against climate change, the generation of opportunities and social dialogue. It is not possible to achieve a transition to renewable energy without the use of strategic minerals such as copper”.

OBJECTIVES OF THE HUB

Quintil Valley stated that the project seeks, among other things, to share good operational, environmental and social, national, and global practices to encourage social innovation in the different stages of the copper projects of the members of the Colombian Innovation Hub, as well as to contribute in a collaborative way and in spaces of co-construction with the initiatives that promote the energy transition and the different public policies of the Government.

The company also seeks to promote a route for transforming the mineral in a clean, environmentally, and community-responsible manner, enabling the country to produce, process, and use copper in its own applications that mobilize new knowledge, alliances, and the creation of companies for the energy transition.

Walter Rosenthal pointed out that “Quintil Valley specializes in designing and operating Innovation Hubs in Latin America, with special experience in the region’s mining and energy sector. We are very happy about the great step we took in Colombia, to be the managers of all the collaboration between ecosystems for this new innovative copper hub in the country, which will allow us to complete a high-value proposal for a territory with great potential”.

The companies that make up the HUB are:

• Metalmax Mining
• Libero Copper
• Max Resources
• Minerales Córdoba
• Quebradona Copper Mining
• El Roble Mining
• Royal Roads
• Rugby Limited
• International Materials

With information from Maray