During the conversation "Sustainable, Innovative and Intelligent Mining", Cecilia Rabitsch said that mining companies must take care of three important points: processes, infrastructure and people, in order to close any gap that is not only aimed at social management.
"There are three macro issues that we have to look at: processes, infrastructure and people. We have to start looking at people, not as 'those in the mine' and those 'outside the mine'; but to understand the mechanical process and all the other (actors) around. From the investor, the workers, the people in the area of influence in order to be efficient in that," he said in statements reported by ProActivo.
Likewise, the Vice President of Environmental Affairs and Sustainability of Southern Peaks indicated that all the mine's infrastructure is following the ICMM standard, despite not being a member of that entity: "We are using it as a frame of reference, it is a process that will take us until 2025. We are looking at how to optimize processes in infrastructure, energy efficiency, water and land use".
He also highlighted how social management is being transformed into shared value management in order to provide employability and generate development poles. Thus, Southern Peaks, being an urban mine, focuses on waste management, water management and the development of local enterprises.
"We integrate with the representatives of the institutions: the police, the mayor and the president of the community. We seek to be a social fabric as one more actor in the territory and not as the one who leads. We are quite proud because in the last three years, we have focused a change in these three pillars. For example, in the people, whether it is the issue of human rights, training, development and efficiency in the use of resources," he reported.
First electric truck
Regarding the changes, Rabitsch announced that they are working on an energy transition towards electromobility. Counting on fleets of electric vans.
"We have the first 100 % electric truck, and we have been making pilots and fleets of electric trucks. We seek to innovate our processes to achieve the goals we have as a company in the sector," he said.
Risks
On the other hand, the speaker mentioned that risks arising from natural or other disasters must be addressed jointly. Internal and external problems must be integrated in the same line of work. In this way the population generates confidence and the workers find peace of mind about their families, who mostly live in the surrounding area.
"When we talk about risk management, we have to look at all the risks inside and outside. It does me no good to have an internal emergency response to an earthquake, if once you open the mine door, outside everyone is running without knowing what to do. A very good part of our workers have their families in the area of influence, so they are reassured that we all handle the same information both internally and externally", he concluded.