He joined the mining geotechnics area at SRK Consulting (Chile) in 2016 and has been involved in the geotechnical design of underground and open pit mining projects as well as hydroelectric projects.
At a technical level in the framework of open pit mining, he has developed studies with geotechnical characterisation components (geotechnical campaign design), physical stability analysis: bench-berm, inter-ramp and global (limit equilibrium methods and two-dimensional finite element analysis), all in general with design optimisation processes. At the same time, he has participated – at different levels- in various studies, such as: due diligence, pre-feasibility, feasibility, basic engineering and detail engineering, for both mines currently under operation as well as those undergoing closure processes.
Additionally, he has participated in multidisciplinary projects, interacting with the area of mining planning and specialties such as hydrogeology, geochemistry, dump-tailings geotechnics and mine closure. Within the aforementioned processes, he has participated in technical audits such as Peer Reviews.
For underground mining and hydroelectric projects, he has developed stability studies and support-fortification designs of underground works, using blocks theory (wedges), empirical, analytical and numerical methods (MEF), in addition to the inspection of tunnels built with conventional drilling, blasting methods as well as tunnel boring machines (TBM).
Sebastián has served as senior consultant and project manager for different clients such as AES Gener, Codelco (VCP), KGHM (Franke Mine), Gold Fields (Salares Norte), Kinross (Maricunga and La Coipa), BHP Billiton (Pampa Norte and Escondida) and South32.
