(28-04-2024) The Center for Copper and Mining Studies (CESCO), the renowned Chilean think tank dedicated to the analysis and promotion of the mining industry, is celebrating its 40th anniversary and aims to continue enriching the local and international events it hosts with more content.
In this context, the institution organizes CESCO Week in Santiago, Chile, a week where a series of events for the mining industry are grouped together, including, among others, the CRU World Copper Conference. The latest edition took place between April 15th and 19th.
“What we aim for is to ensure that CESCO Week, here in Santiago, as well as in November in Shanghai, is filled with relevant content for our countries, and for that, we need to work throughout the year”, Jorge Cantallops, Executive Director of CESCO, told MinerAndina in the framework of the latest CESCO Week.
He added that the objectives they are highly focused on include “conducting analytical studies and being able to convene”. Also, “trying to timely identify the main challenges faced, such as market access challenges or public policy challenges affecting the copper industry and other minerals”.
While for many years CESCO was more focused on enhancing what it calls “the meeting point,” such as meetings or events (CESCO Week in Santiago, Copper Week in China, and participating in international events like PDAC), they are now also heavily focused on enhancing these meeting points towards the development of more content, more analysis, more training, and new connections such as with academia.
As an example, this year they organized the second edition of a diploma program certified by the University of Chile in technology and strategic analysis of the mining industry. And, to enhance the content area, they carry out public policy analysis of the global mining industry.
Furthermore, these objectives reinforce their original expertise to “strengthen what we already knew”. Therefore, this year, as part of CESCO Week, in addition to the World Copper Conference and the Exploration Forum, they are organizing other events such as those focused on technology or sustainability, “involving new actors, which is also a way to enhance the meetings”. Jorge Cantallops is particularly proud of the First Meeting with Students, “which was a great success; we loved it and it was one of the things that makes us happiest”.
Similarly, there was a forum on project management challenges, “which we believe is one of the crucial topics to continue providing economic sustainability to the mining business.”
For the Executive Director, it is very important to take advantage of the number of people who come together during CESCO Week, to involve more countries and focus more on the challenges of mining and the challenges as mining countries. “It is a tremendous opportunity not only for Chile but for all the countries in the region”.
About CESCO in the words of its Executive Director
CESCO is a center of professionals, we are not a guild. As a center of professionals, we generate knowledge, and that is something we highly value. Many of the most prestigious professionals in the mining industry, also concerned about public policy, are part of CESCO. It is then normal for our members to later hold public positions. So, our reach also has to do with that and it is a fairly cross-sectional view; it is not about a political sector; it is about various political sectors where people from CESCO have been involved in different positions, either in public companies or directly in governments. It’s a different interrelation.
On the other hand, we are constantly inviting authorities to participate in these meetings. We not only seek to influence but to create a constructive and continuous dialogue that transcends events.
For the first time this year, CESCO will publish a document about CESCO Week, which is very important and will be a contribution because it helps to give consistency. But the work is constant because it is part of our daily work, which involves public policy implications.
If we manage to convene and fill these events with a lot of content, then I feel satisfied. That is what I seek: to make CESCO Week here in Santiago, and the one we hold in China, filled with content that is relevant to our countries. That’s the goal and for that, we have to work throughout the year.