Francisca Riveros, General Manager of SMI-ICE-Chile, and Jacques Wiertz, the leader of the Environmental Rehabilitation and Ecosystem Dynamics area, played an important role at this annual meeting, that brought together representatives of the industry, academia, government agencies and indigenous communities, to discuss lithium, a strategic mineral in the global energy transition.
This 8th version of the Lithium Forum, entitled “Key steps to intensify lithium mining in Chile”, took place in the auditorium of the Universidad del Desarrollo and was attended by representatives and leaders from industry, academia, government agencies and indigenous communities.
SMI-ICE-Chile’s Jacques Wiertz and Cristián Ortiz, CEO of Hidroestudios, gave a presentation on “Twelve years of reinjection in the Salar de Llamara aquifer: Lessons for future projects”, where they analysed the challenges of brine reinjection in future lithium projects.Their presentation highlighted the importance of incorporating scientific knowledge and technological development into the environmental management of these salt flats, developing hydrogeological numerical models to optimize the location of injection well fields to evaluate environmental effects and hydrogeochemical models to evaluate problems with well operation and the aquifer.
During the afternoon session, Francisca Rivero, General Manager of SMI-ICE-Chile, moderated the module “Developing technologies for the new lithium era,” with two panel members from Worley Chile: Innovation and Development Manager Osvaldo Yáñez and Project Manager Eduardo Montegú.
