5 Minutes With: Diego De La Barra, LATAM Director

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We recently participated in Exposibram, the leading international mining exhibition in Brazil held from September 18-21, 2017 in Belo Horizonte. Held every two years, Exposibram is the largest mining trade fair in Latin America with more than 40,000 visitors and 405 exhibitors represented from 25 different countries. Held in parallel to the exhibition, the Brazilian Mining Congress attracts more than 2,000 mining experts, researchers, students and business representatives.

The content presented at Exposibram takes into account the global political and socioeconomic context as well as the business perspectives for the coming decades announced by mining companies.

We spent 5 minutes with Diego De La Barra, Natural Resources LATAM Director at Exposibram 2017 to get his perspective on the Brazilian mining industry.

What are the main issues facing the Latin American mining industry today?

The main business issues that Latin America is facing today is the volatility in commodity prices and the increase of operation costs, which has resulted in a decrease in the margins of mining operations, making the business non-attractive for investors.

The last downturn was very complex and challenging to the Brazilian market but we noticed positive sentiment among the participants, hoping for a better future. Brazil has a complex market with a variety of commodities but we are ready to support each of them, from the start to build the mine through to the operation phase.

How can technology help to address these challenges?

The way to improve the current situation is through technology – incorporating new tools and processes to promote adequate change management. The industry needs to make necessary investments to increase productivity – a permanent problem needs permanent solutions.

As solution providers, we need to connect and communicate to the right communities, and Exposibram is a good environment for this as most of the Brazilian mining market was represented here.

Shifting the mining mindset is also challenging as the industry has always been conservative in technology investment. Mining companies are used to investing in increasing the size of their operations, more trucks and so on, but now it has been proved that this is not the way. They need to change their approach to adapt and survive.

We feel that mining companies are sensitive about the issues they are facing – They are aware they need to become more attractive to investors and they understand they need to rethink mining in a different way which are already being done by big mining companies.

We are bringing knowledge and best practices from different industries such as manufacturing, automotive, aeronautic, which have already adopted a collaborative platform. The impact has been proved to be positive to business promoting efficiency. Collaborative processes avoid siloed work as it connects information across departments so that everyone is working off a single source of truth.

Exposibram is an important event for Dassault Systèmes. It is the largest Latin American mining show and the main one in Brazil. For us it’s the chance to connect with our partners and customers, and a good way of showcasing what we are doing in terms of disruptive technology. By demonstrating practical examples such as the robust design and the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, we can show the path to digital transformation in mining and help to articulate all the processes of the mine with a unique tool.

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Juliana Drumond

Juliana Drumond

Marketing Specialist, LATAM, GEOVIA at Dassault Systèmes
Juliana is Offer Marketing Specialist for GEOVIA at Dassault Systemes and is based in Belo Horizonte in Brazil. She is responsible for the GEOVIA website on 3ds.com and new product release communications.