Faced with changing and increasingly complex scenarios, it is necessary to focus not only on good crisis management. The strategic consulting firm Conjunto argues that the industry must anticipate such crises, building an early and updated vision of its risks, in order to manage them efficiently and prevent them from escalating or becoming permanent.

Today the mining industry faces a scenario characterized by multiple and emerging risks, and this happens every time it undertakes the development of a new project in the territory, warns Patricia Montes Aburto, founding partner and Project Manager of Conjunto.

“Among the main risks to be managed is the prevalence of a regulatory framework that imposes high standards of performance in terms of sustainability, in a context of climate change,” the expert explains.

“To the above must be added the presence of opposition movements, the devaluation of the company’s social image, the location of the project in indigenous areas and the weakness of the management and internal control system to prevent and contain possible socio-environmental damage due to operational failures”, adds Montes ‘Other threats faced by the companies are related to the growing exposure to criminal events, which, added to weaknesses in the internal protection system of the companies themselves and the limited response capacity of the public security services, make up a significant risk scenario’.

However, in the executive’s opinion, the real challenge for the industry is to focus its attention before risks arise and generate adverse contingencies. “Mining must get ahead of the curve, adopting a preventive vision that aims to delay the appearance of problems and mitigate their effects, relying on management tools for more effective risk management”.

“Risk management is usually required when the company is going through a crisis,” emphasizes Montes, ‘when the conflict has already escalated beyond what is prudent and internal controls have proved to be insufficient’.

“It is recommended that companies have early inventories of their potential threats, updating this balance systematically, integrating it as a permanent exercise in their internal management systems, in each of the development phases of their projects in the territory,” the expert explains.

A STRATEGIC PARTNER

“Thanks to the experience we have accumulated, Conjunto is presented as a strategic ally to accompany companies to anticipate and develop resilience, approaching risk management from an integrated perspective, which considers the whole range of critical aspects that condition the development of the project in the territory and weighing security, environmental and social aspects. Undoubtedly, this is our main differentiating attribute,” says Montes.

The consulting firm focuses on approaching risk management with a preventive and integrating perspective, considering the specificity of each of the components mentioned and the interrelation between them. Thus, for example, environmental factors have social implications, which in turn could have an impact on the security dimension.

In this way, Conjunto has been able to consolidate an integrated risk management proposal for investment projects, based on values, with a multidisciplinary vision and oriented to the creation and strengthening of operational prevention and control systems, based on a specific territorial context.

“During 2024 we will develop a series of advisory services focused on security aspects, adopting an integrated view of risks, prioritizing the protection of people and critical assets, in addition to safeguarding operational continuity in environments with increasing levels of insecurity”, concludes the executive.