Olivia Mejías González is a Chilean geologist, who obtained a 1st class BSc (Hons) degree from the University of Concepción in 2013.

After completing her undergraduate degree, in 2019 Olivia completed her Master’s in applied mineralogy and geometallurgy at the previously mentioned university. She was awarded the CODELCO Academic Excellence Scholarship for her undergraduate studies and the CODELCO Supervisor Scholarship for her Master studies.

Olivia worked as a Research Assistant for BRC during 2019, and then as a Project Geologist for SMI-ICE-Chile during 2020-2021, focused on developing knowledge about critical metals through integration of geochemical (ICP-MS), lithological, mineralogical, and metallurgical data to generate mainly cobalt distribution hosted in IOCG deposits, enhancing new opportunities for sub-products recovery.

Prior to joining the BRC, Olivia spent 7 years (2012-2019) in industry, involved in production and short-term geometallurgy applied to mine-planning for CODELCO at El Teniente underground mine, a porphyry Cu-Mo deposit. She succeeded in promoting the mine-plant integration through the development of systematic geometallurgical characterisation and ore control applied to drawpoints, geometallurgical reports and procedures to allow improved mine-planning and waste rock management practices of underground mining to feed the processing lines.

Olivia's experience includes working in multidisciplinary teams, with analytical techniques such as QEMSCAN, SEM-EDS, XRD, AAS, XRF, LA-ICP-MS, ICP-MS, and LIBS.

Olivia was awarded a Becas Chile Scholarship to support her PhD studies in BRC. Her PhD is focused on the critical metal indium, a project funded by the Department of Resources under the New Economy Minerals Initiative (NEMI). The secondary prospectivity of the waste rock of Baal Gammon is being investigated in detail through her PhD research titled “Understanding metal cycling of Indium in Queensland’s mine waste and its potential for recovery: a geometallurgical approach”.

Olivia is part of the Technical Committee of the GEOMET and GEOMIN annual conferences. Moreover, she is part of the authors of the Geology for Global Development Blog, an international entity the purpose of which is to advocate the role of geology in achieving compliance with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Publications

Conference Papers

Quevedo, J., Ojeda, J., Mejías, O., Vera, S., Saavedra-Mella, F. and Gonzalez, J. (2021). Circular Economy: IOCG Ore Treatment to Supply Raw Materials Electromobility, Construction Materials, and Fertilizers. Procemin-GEOMET. 17th International Conference on Mineral Processing and Geometallurgy, Chile. October 2021.

Mejías, O., Quevedo, J., Parbhakar-Fox, A., Townley, B., and Danyushevsky, L. (2020). Geochemical Assessment of Critical Metals: A Geometallurgical Guideline for the Evaluation of ByProducts of an IOCG Type Deposit, Chile. Procemin-GEOMET. 16th International Mineral Processing Conference and 7th International Seminar on Geometallurgy, Chile. November 2020.

Toledo, V., Mejías, O., and Jerez, O. (2020). Geometallurgical Characterization to Boost Short-Term Planning of the Conventional Process Line at El Teniente Division, Codelco. Procemin-GEOMET. 16th International Mineral Processing Conference and 7th International Seminar on Geometallurgy, Chile. November 2020.

Mejías, O., Méndez, E., Contreras, U., Pavez, V., and Toledo, V. (2019). Improvement of Short-Term Planning in Molybdenum Recovery at El Teniente. Procemin-GEOMET. 15th International Mineral Processing Conference and 6th International Seminar on Geometallurgy, Chile. November 2020.

Contreras, U., Mejías, O., and Jimenez, M. (2018). Short-term Geometallurgy at Teniente Mine Division, a Great Challenge, CODELCO El Teniente Division. Procemin-GEOMET. 14th International Mineral Processing Conference and 5th International Seminar on Geometallurgy, Chile. November 2018.

Mejías, O., Diez, E., and Salazar, M. (2015). Characteristics and Geo-Mining-Metallurgical Effects of the Overburden Material of the Productive Sector Reservas Norte, CODELCO El Teniente Division. XIV Chilean Geological Conference, Chile. October 2015.

Mejías, O., Salazar, M., and Diez, E. (2014). Geological characterization of drawpoints in the El Teniente mine: An improvement tool for short-term mine-plant planning, CODELCO El Teniente Division. GEOMET. 2nd International Seminar on Geometallurgy, Chile. December 2014.

Hermosilla, J., Castagno, R., and Mejías, O. (2013). Ore Mineralization Controls in Rosario Porphyric Cu-Mo System: Collahuasi District. GEOMIN. 3rd International Seminar on Geology for the Mining Industry, Chile. July 2013.