Felipe Chacón Salazar
Felipe holds a Master of Philosophy in Mining Engineering (Advanced Blasting Modelling and Geotechnical Risks Control) at The University of Queensland and currently works as a Senior Mining Engineer at JKTech where he is responsible for mining related studies and the development, distribution and support of D&B digital solutions including JKSimBlast, and the dynamic three-dimensional blast movement model JKVBOC. As part of his journey at the University of Queensland, he embarked on pivotal R&D endeavours, addressing and resolving real-world challenges in the mining sector. Through the adoption of cutting-edge technology and the creation of novel tools, he not only pinpointed the root issues but also devised efficient solutions. These innovations have since been incorporated into prominent open-pit coal operations in Australia.
He obtained a Bachelor of Applied Science and Mining Engineer degree with honours from the University of Santiago; with 11+ years’ experience across diverse projects within the mining, and explosives industry globally. Before joining JKTech, he worked at African Explosive Limited Mining Services as a D&B Engineer where he gained hands-on experience on blast design techniques, instrumentation, software application, and training industry personnel on electronic initiation systems. As part of the company’s first trial of explosive manufacturing service in Chile, Felipe led all the corporate affairs with the governmental, military, and authorities involved in importing, storing, transporting, manufacturing, and commercialising explosives.
Previous experience underscored by underground mining supervision and planning at El Teniente (CODELCO), and Minera San Pedro Ltda where he also took the reins in formulating the mining method to securing exploitation approval from various Government Departments, including the SEA (Environmental Service).