Port sector meets at the Second Technical Roundtable

Organized by SQM Iodine Plant Nutrition’s Tocopilla port team and the Chilean Safety Association (Asociación Chilena de Seguridad or ACHS), the Second Port Technical Roundtable was held to share experiences, innovations and best practices that help positively address aspects of safety, occupational health and emergencies.

The Logistics and Planning Manager for SQM iodine Plant Nutrition, Jorge Téllez, commented, “This event started with a focus on safety, and was later expanded to issues like sustainability and environmental stewardship. Today more than ever we are committed to this type of activity because it aligns with one of our values—safety—so exchanging experiences and good practices with other companies helps us generate safe spaces for our teams and our industry.”

Meanwhile, Yerko Díaz, the director of the Chilean National Geology and Mining Agency (Sernageomin), remarked that “safety and occupational health are key to the development and sustainability of any company. Therefore, this sort of meeting, where different lessons can be learned, will always be very relevant for the industry.

During the event, participants learned about the work done by SQM Iodine Plant Nutrition’s team at the Port of Tocopilla to ensure a high-standard response from its emergency brigade. For its part, a team from the Port of Punta Chungo, owned by Minera Los Pelambres, discussed its safety, health and emergency management programs.

In turn, the ACHS spoke about the hygienic risks of port work from an occupational health perspective. A team from Universidad de Valparaíso was also at the conference, presenting an innovative swell warning system that can be used for port safety.

In this regard, Javiera Cabalin, Manager of the Northern Territory for ACHS, said, “We are very pleased to have participated and collaborated in this event where the various teams had a chance to receive feedback, share good practices and reflect on safety, occupational health and also how to deal with different emergencies. I think it was a very enriching activity, with different speakers, allowing us to continuously improve all our processes.”

Several port companies, including Puerto Angamos, ATI, Puerto Antofagasta, Puerto Punta Chungo, Centinela, Puerto Barquito, among others, attended the activity, along with various maritime government officials.