Offices

Itasca S.A.

Background Expertise Staff Contact

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.

Catalina Álvarez — rock mechanics, numerical modeling. Dr. Alvarez has broad experience in applying advanced numerical methods to simulation and interpretation of geophysical data surveys. In the field of rock mechanics, she has performed calibration of properties for dynamic analysis and 3D time-dependant modeling for waste deposits on glaciers.
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Alex Cabrera — geological engineering. Mr. Cabrera holds a degree in Geological Engineering from the Escuela de Caminos, Canales y Puertos de Barcelona ‐ Facultad de Geología de Barcelona (UPC ‐ UB). He has field experience in tunneling (design and supervision), stability analysis of landslides, inspection and supervision of improved soils and rocks (micropiles, anchors, bolts, injections).
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Myriam Fuentes — rock mechanics, numerical modeling. Ms. Fuentes has performed several stress-calibration studies for mines in Chile and abroad. She has participated in numerical modeling of cave mining, pillar behavior in underground mines and stability analysis projects. She also has developed algorithms for the implementation of geological block models in 3D and 2D numerical models.
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Patricio Gómez — applied geotechnical engineering, rock mechanics & numerical modeling. Mr. Gómez has worked in the field of rock and soil mechanics for major mining projects in Chile and has conducted stability and stress analyses using numerical modeling.
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Miguel Navarrete — rock & soil mechanics. Mr. Navarrete is a geotechnical engineer with a degree in civil engineering with experience in rock and soil mechanics, and numerical modeling. He has participated in slope stability analysis projects for tailings dam and open pits, and in the design of ancillary works.
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Andrés Panes — geotechnical engineering, numerical modeling. Mr. Panes is a Civil Engineer with experience in soil mechanics and numerical modeling. He has participated in slope stability analyses for tailings dams and open pits.
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Victor Rivero — geomechanical engineering, numerical modeling. Dr. Rivero’s work experience has been related to the geomechanics comparison between geometries for underground mines utilizing the block-caving mining method. In addition, he has participated in mining design projects and in the geomechanics assessment of alternative layouts for block-cave mining.
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Rodrigo Silva-Guzmán — mining engineering. Mr. Silva-Guzmán has worked in the area of applied rock mechanics mainly in connection with underground mining. His experience has been related to subjects such as fragmentation and stability of underground works in association with rock mass pre-conditioning processes.
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José Zuta — geomechanical engineering. José Zuta is a Civil Engineer with a B.Sc. degree and M.Sc. studies from National University of Engineering (Lima – Perú, 2002, 2006). His experience includes: slope-stability analysis of soils and rocks, water dams and tailings dams; dynamic analysis of earth structures; seismic hazard analysis; analysis of seismic records; design of shallow and deep foundations, and shallow seismic geophysical testing and processing; and application of specialized geotechnical and geomechanical software.
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