Chilean and international mining companies could reduce costs and increase profits in great amounts, thanks to a very innovative project between mining companies, mining suppliers, the Chilean government (CORFO) and OTRI CHILE S.A. The project gathers inventions (mainly products and processes) that are new, and shows them to the mining cluster. Great Chilean inventions are to be presented in Expomin 2010 by means of Technology Road Shows developed by OTRI CHILE, in which they will present the inventions for different mining industry processes to big companies.

" MINERIA INVENTA" (Mining Inventing in Spanish) is the name of an important work area being developed by the Technology Transfer Office OTRI CHILE, which aims to create a technological inventions portfolio with concrete business opportunities and launch them through effective marketing channels.

In order to achieve this, OTRI CHILE convened in 2009 to a contest in which inventors (SMEs -Small and Medium Enterprises-) around Chile competed with new, innovative solutions for known problems in the mining production processes. As a result, the company received over 200 projects, which address the widest range of solutions for the mining industry.

Among the 200 inventions mentioned above, ten were selected and they will be presented at Expomin 2010.

The inventions are related to drilling, blasting, mineral transport (conveyor belts), acid transport, flotation, solvent extraction, electrowinning and waste treatment, requiring an investment of $ 5,500 million of Chilean pesos (US$ 10.- millions), which if implemented could generate profits of $ 26,500 million of Chilean pesos (US$ 50.- millions) in five years, generating jobs, technifying and improving the sector competitiveness.

Road Shows

The commercialization vehicle for these inventions is called "Technology Road Show", instance created to bring together inventors and final customers in order to establish concrete business opportunities, where attendees will be able to make offers, according to previously established procedures.

The open Road Show will be held in Expomin, on Wednesday, April 14th 2010, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., in Don Edmundo Hall, at Espacio Riesco, Santiago Chile. OTRI CHILE invites all mining companies and mining providers that want to participate. Ten of the finalist inventions of the MINERIA INVENTA contest will be presented, and OTRI CHILE will act as a negotiation facilitator.

The negotiations consider the provision for the inventions’ international patent and a period of testing with licensing option.

The MINERIA INVENTA project is executed by OTRI CHILE, funded by Innova Chile CORFO, CODELCO, DRILLCO TOOLS, INDURA, ENAMI and SONAMI.

The Road Show to be held in Expomin 2010 represents the first time in which the inventions will be shown to the general public.

Inventions to be presented in Expomin 2010

OTRI CHILE

OTRI CHILE S.A. is a company created in 2005, in order to transfer the research results obtained in Chile, strengthening the technology market of national inventions.

With that goal, the company carries out the protection of industrial property of the research results in Chile and abroad, the transfer and commercialization to national and international industries, consultancy, and the training and spreading related to industrial property issues.

The world seen through export of metals
Source: SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan), 2006.

The world seen by Patent generation
Source: SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan), 2006.

In order to commercialize the innovative national capacity, OTRI CHILE supports inventors in carrying out the necessary steps for obtaining patents, and technological and economic evaluations of their inventions.

For its creation, five universities have partnered: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidad de Concepción, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Universidad Católica del Norte and the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María. Also, the private business sector is represented on the board of the company by the Confederación de la Producción y el Comercio CPC and the Asociación de Exportadores de Manufacturas ASEXMA.

OTRI has several technology brokers abroad, for the commercialization of inventions throughout the world.