Cristóbal is a Chemical Civil Engineer, MSc in Chemical Engineering from the Federico Santa María Technical University, Chile. He currently works as project manager at SGS Advanced Process Control & Data Science, collaborating in the proposal, development, implementation and continuous improvement of advanced process control (APC) projects in the entire productive line of metal mineral processing, such as crushing, grinding, flotation, thickening, pulp transportation, concentrate filtering, among others. It also highlights the development of APC projects in lithium precipitation, generating significant benefits in product quality and reduction in the use of inputs. He has collaborated and led projects in various countries such as Chile, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, USA, South Africa, Zambia, among others. Providing services in the great mining of Copper and also the processing of other metals such as Gold, Lead, Silver, Zinc, Iron and others such as Lithium and Diamonds.
The continuous development of information technologies has led to the generation of mining operation alternatives based on advanced process control (APC) and intelligent production architectures. One of the main challenges in this operating philosophy lies in the integration of physical equipment/processes with their virtual equivalents which is indispensable to guarantee a bidirectional intelligent interconnection and a dynamic optimization of the process. In this context, process digital twins emerge as an alternative for real-time interaction, allowing analysis, simulation, control, optimization and decision-making related to optimal local (equipment) and global (concentrator plant) operation. This presentation deals with the implementation of an advanced control system in a stage of the lithium concentration process that, in turn, has allowed obtaining the key knowledge for the development of a digital twin of this process.