I handle the permits a mine needs both to operate and to sell: Exploitation Project and Closure Plan before SERNAGEOMIN, explosives magazine authorisation, habitual explosives consumer status and ENAMI producer registration. This is not advice from a desk — I am a partner and legal representative of an operating underground copper mine, and these are the very filings I ran for it.
An orebody without permits is a frozen asset. What usually stands between a project on hold and one dispatching trucks is a well-built file, submitted to the right authority, in the right order.
The founding instrument of any Chilean mine. It defines the mining method, the sequence of workings, the safety measures and the closure obligations.
Without an authorised magazine there is no in-house blasting, and without in-house blasting the cost per tonne climbs fast.
The qualification that allows a company to purchase and consume explosives on a regular basis instead of working on one-off authorisations.
Producing is pointless if you cannot sell. Registration unlocks ore dispatch and access to ENAMI purchasing agencies.
The document an investor asks for before committing capital: what is there, what is permitted, what is missing and what it costs to restart.
The same unit-price discipline I apply in construction, applied to the mine: per metre of advance, per tonne hauled, per hole drilled.
A small-scale operation in the Atacama Region in which I am a partner and legal representative. What follows is an extract of public project information: permits obtained, planned operation, mineralisation and geological context. The exact location, the identification of the mining concessions and all commercial figures are deliberately withheld.
The geological and structural setting is consistent with an IOCG-type hydrothermal system (iron oxide–copper–gold). The exploration upside is concentrated in mineralised continuity at depth, both in the north–south main structures — more continuous but lower average grade — and in the smaller, higher-grade secondary lenticular bodies.
Below the level currently mined, a transition from the oxide domain into sulphide mineralisation can be expected, which changes both the processing route and the purchasing agency the ore is dispatched to. Waste dumps show low acid drainage risk given the high carbonate content of the material.
Underground workings, stope faces, loading and stockpiles. All images are my own and correspond to the operation described above.
At minimum, an Exploitation Project with a Closure Plan approved by SERNAGEOMIN. If the operation uses explosives, add the storage (magazine) authorisation and the habitual consumer qualification. And to sell ore to ENAMI you also need producer registration. These are four separate filings, before different authorities, on different timelines: it pays to sequence them from the start rather than discovering them one at a time.
Yes. The approved instrument can be assigned between title holders through the corresponding procedure. In practice it is the fastest and cheapest route to restart a mine with history: you inherit the approved engineering instead of rebuilding it. I have managed this in an operation that passed through three successive title holders while keeping the same instrument in force.
It depends on the scale, on whether processing facilities exist inside the concessions and on the footprint of the operation. A contained operation with no plant of its own, dispatching ore to authorised third-party plants, is usually not required to enter. It is a case-by-case assessment, and it is worth making before investing rather than after.
It depends on the state of the file and the workload of the authority. In my recent experience, digitising the procedure did not speed it up: it went from weeks to months. That is why it should be filed early and in parallel with the rest, not when blasting is already needed.
Yes. I prepare the technical report that organises the scattered information of a mining asset — geology, existing workings, permits in force, validation gaps, work programme and budget — so that the investment decision rests on verifiable records rather than on narratives.
If you have a deposit held up by paperwork, an operation that needs to be regularised, or an asset you want to present to an investor, write to me. The first conversation is free.
Mining Engineer, Universidad de La Serena · Available across Chile · Technical documentation in English and Spanish.