Itasca S.A.

Established in 1993 in Santiago de Chile, Itasca S.A. provides applied geomechanics services mainly to clients from the mining industry and project engineering firms. The office serves all of Latin America, and its staff have a variety of skills ranging from field work to practical application of analysis tools developed in Itasca's Minneapolis office. From the beginning of its operation, Itasca S.A. has provided consulting services to the most important mining companies in Chile, including: the Andina, Chuquicamata and El Teniente Divisions of the government-owned CODELCO; Escondida Mining Co.; and El Indio Mining Co. Itasca S.A. performs work in the following areas: static and dynamic stability of mining and civil slopes, support specification, underground pillars and stopes dimensioning, geomechanical characterization of rock masses, design of systems for geomechanical instrumentation and monitoring, etc.

General management is under the direction of Patricio Gómez, an engineer with almost 20 years of experience in geotechnical engineering applied to the mining and civil industries and with nearly 15 years of experience using Itasca tools on a variety of geotechnical problems.

The Itasca S.A. staff includes four other Chilean modeling specialists: the mining engineers Rodrigo Silva-Mandiola and Rodrigo Silva-Guzmán, the electrical engineer Myriam Fuentes and the physics doctor Catalina Álvarez, all of them with relevant experience in applied geotechnical and geomechanical engineering. The Chilean team is completed with the IT specialist Rodrigo Godoy and the Executive Secretary Paola Pulgar.