Santiago, April 10, 2020 – The health crisis the world is currently experiencing due to the COVID-19 has translated into enormous challenges worldwide on the productive sectors to protect the safety and health of their workers, and the mining industry is no exception to that. It is in this context, that Expande along six major mining companies (Antofagasta Minerals, Angloamerican, BHP, Codelco, Mantos Copper, and Teck) have joined forces to launch a call to identify innovative solutions that can be rapidly implemented to facilitate an agile and efficient management of the emergency that this pandemic has brought into the industry.

This initiative is directed towards startups, local companies, and/or representatives of international technology companies with representation in Chile, that have at least one prototype tested in an operating environment (TRL> 7) focusing on: early detection, sanitation, support infrastructure, prevention, compliance with protocols, mental health, and recreation.

Based on the number and relevance of the proposals received, some approaches and areas will be prioritized and go through an exhaustive evaluation and selection process, to subsequently have the opportunity to participate in the Demo Day, which will be held on May 11. At this instance, the selected companies -under a competitive process- will showcase their innovative solutions before representatives of each of the convening mining companies, which in turn, will consider the most attractive initiatives for their subsequent implementation processes, according to their own acquisition policies.

Please note that the proposals of those companies that do not qualify for the Demo Day, will be referred to the mining companies for their own particular analysis.  

For Enrique Molina, Expande’s Executive Director, “Innovative startups and companies have proven to be key in a world that is increasingly expectant about the advance of the coronavirus pandemic and its future consequences. Today, there already are several companies successfully implementing or working on the development of technologies in various industries to combat the spread of the virus. That is why we are now reaching out for you to participate in this call that has at heart, the safety and health of each of the workers in the mining sector”.

Molina also highlighted the importance of “the model of collaboration and partnership on which we have worked for the past 3 years, which will allow us materializing innovative solutions that are possible to implement in the short term”.Applications will be open from April 9 to 23, in our platform www.expandemineria.cl.