en.Wedoany.com Reported - On April 10, 2026, Chile's mining industry organization Minnovex hosted a new edition of its "Partners Meeting" in Santiago, bringing together executives from supplier companies, universities, and Antofagasta Minerals. The aim was to introduce innovation into the core of mining operations, addressing key challenges in productivity, safety, and efficiency. This meeting focused on the structural gap between technology supply and operational needs, promoting collaboration between mining companies, technology suppliers, and knowledge centers.
The mining innovation sector faces a structural gap between technology supply and operational needs, a diagnosis that has reached consensus within the industry. Currently, connecting technological solutions with the actual demands of mining operations remains difficult, limiting the adoption of innovations. Many developed solutions fail to meet the maturity levels required by large-scale mining, as the scale and complexity of operations raise implementation standards. From the perspective of the supplier ecosystem, a lack of visibility into operational challenges restricts the development of relevant solutions, leading to a mismatch between supply and demand.
Antofagasta Minerals has a clear and focused approach: solutions must address specific challenges such as predictive maintenance, equipment optimization, and operational safety, with a direct impact on productivity. The company operates four copper mines in Chile, with a copper production of 653,700 tons in 2025, making it one of the world's significant copper producers. The company has advanced in building a clearer innovation process—extracting challenges from operations and opening them to the ecosystem—allowing technology development to target real problems and reduce the number of iterations.
Minnovex is an industry organization in Chile dedicated to products, supplies, and knowledge-intensive services for the mining and industrial sectors, committed to nurturing its member companies into world-class suppliers. In this context, Minnovex's coordinating role aims to foster synergy between the mining industry, suppliers, and knowledge centers, seen as a key driver for developing applied innovation in Chile. Strengthening the local supplier ecosystem helps capture more value within the mining chain and reduces dependence on external technology. "The key is to create spaces where mining companies can deeply share their challenges, so suppliers can develop solutions that truly impact operations," said Alejandra Molina, General Manager of Minnovex.
This meeting reflects the trend in Chile's mining sector to accelerate technology integration amid higher demands for cost, sustainability, and productivity. Chile's mining services industry generated over $20 billion in output in 2024, involving more than 8,000 suppliers. Against this backdrop, establishing direct dialogue platforms between mining companies and suppliers holds practical significance for shortening technology development cycles and increasing the probability of effective adoption.
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