Lack of opportunities and policies slow potential development of mining suppliers
Despite having significant growth, firms must deal with a number of barriers that limit their advancement.
“A strong field whose potential is not being fully utilized,” is how Innovum’s manager of Fundación Chile (FCH), Hernán Araneda, refers to the field of mining suppliers. According to the latest study on the characterization of “Suppliers of Chilean Mining”, performed by Innovum based on 2012, companies in the sector are characterized by high sales volumes of 35% sold more than 100,000 UF) professionalization (44 % of workers have professional or technical degree) and employment (which increased by 43% between 2010 and 2012).
However, Araneda still emphasizes “there are major barriers to the development of their full potential.”
One of these, he says, is the high value of land that have reached northern cities with mineral sites, such as Antofagasta, doing completely unworkable for many companies to settle in the sector. In fact, according to the study, only 23% of suppliers is headquartered in mining regions, with the majority in the Metropolitan Region.
Another factor is the lack of opportunities for firms to test their technologies and innovations in real situations. “In other countries, even the facilities of some sites that are not being exploited to create laboratory-used mines” he says.
Also adversely affect that the mining companies, in their interest to quickly solve the problems of everyday life, reduce costs so as to have better numbers in the short term, including innovation because, he says, “this takes a little longer in bear fruit.”-
However, the most worrying barrier is the lack of a public policy that promotes the industry, “as given in the countries that have done well, as is the case of Australia,” exemplifies.
Source: Diario Financiero
