The development of a mining project, from the occurrence of a particular mineral or raw material to the production stage itself, is a complex, time consuming and multidisciplinary process. Economically is one of the highest risk activities of return on invested capital.

All mineral raw materials we use come from the earth’s crust. The various elements which constitute the crust are not evenly distributed but occur as a mixture of minerals with a predominance of certain larger elements in their structure.

The elemental distribution irregularities are generated by climatic and geological processes, resulting in some cases in an anomalous concentration of these minerals.

The presence of a particular mineral or raw material is a mere hint that always requires further investigation that allows to reveal its real meaning, relevance and economic interest.

A Mineral Resource is a concentration or occurrence of material in the Earth’s crust at the surface or in depth, with inherent economic interest, and that the manner and amount in which they occur or the concentration and quality features justifies the development of research and exploration works to determine its eventual future exploration.

Those concentrations are defined as Mineral Reserve whenever it is demonstrated they are liable of present economically advantageous exploitation, once considered regulatory, social, environmental, logistics, technical and market aspects.

The works of exploration are actually the first stages of any mining project.

The services that Visa offers for this area are: