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La Planificacion Minera-CODELCO
La Planificacion Minera-CODELCO
In the mining industry, the concept of mining planning has been finding an ever
stronger place as a backbone of the processes of strategic planning and business plan
generation. This concept has been strengthened by four basic causes: (1) the
stockholders of mining companies are demanding the creation of value in increasingly
complex economic environments; (2) the growing conviction of the companies' higher
management that a large part of the creation of value in the mining business is generated
in the formulation of the mining plan; (3) the inclusion of more robust economic concepts in
the process of mining planning; and (4) the development of information systems and
methodologies of analysis that allow mining planning in a global and systemic way.
In this context, mining planning incorporates an integral view that encompasses the
key variables and decisions, from the geologic models, going through mining, and
including ore processing. It is also able to approach in a dynamic way the analysis of
multideposits and multiplants.
The objective of mining planning is to generate the business plan that will extract the
greatest economic potential form the known mining resources/reserves for a given risk
level. This activity must therefore be carried out under different business scenarios and
must involve the total mining resources/reserves (life-of-mine business plan).
This conceptualization of mining planning has two important consequences:
The analysis of the projects must not be made only with respect to the starting point
or current operation, but it must rather consider its impact on the development route
that has been set by the company. In other words, it must be consistent with the
chosen long-term plan, thereby maximizing the creation of value.
This long-term holistic view does not have an impact only on the value of the company
in the sense of unveiling different future growth possibilities, but also on the company's
short-term results in terms of its production plans, as well as on its budgets and its
capacity to generate surplus. This occurs as a consequence of operational decisions
derived from the effect of the greater cost of opportunity and from modifications of the
cut-off variables, among other causes.
This paper will present the methodological process that underlies the generation of
the business scenarios, including risk management. It will also approach the way in which
Codelco has had to transform its planning instruments to make them consistent with this
viewpoint. Finally, it will introduce the main results obtained at Codelco during the 2003
planning process by the application of these concepts.
Los Objetivos deben ser Factibles, en cuanto a los plazos, eficiencias y costos
comprometidos.
Los Planes que se generen deben ser Imaginativos, tratando de identificar nuevas
soluciones y cambios estructurales.
Las Estimaciones deben ser Realistas, en cuanto a que reflejen la realidad que
aporta la informacin disponible como tambin la previsible.
El anlisis de los proyectos no slo se debe realizar respecto del referente de partida
u operacin actual , sino que debe considerar su impacto en la ruta de desarrollo que
se ha trazado la empresa. Es decir, debe ser consecuente con el plan de largo plazo
seleccionado y que, por lo tanto, maximiza la creacin de valor.
Esta visin holstica de largo plazo no slo impacta el valor de la compaa por develar
distintas posibilidades de crecimiento en el futuro, sino que impacta en los resultados
de la empresa en el corto plazo, tanto en los planes de produccin, como en los
presupuestos, y en la capacidad de generacin de excedentes. Esto se genera como
consecuencia decisiones operacionales, derivadas del efecto del mayor costo de
oportunidad y por modificaciones de las variables de corte, entre otras causas.