Interview with Chile's leading newspaper, El Mercurio

SLR’s Chief Operating Officer, Natalie Nottage, and Regional Director for Latin America, Ana Amar, were recently interviewed by Chile’s leading newspaper, El Mercurio, discussing SLR’s expansion into South America and the opportunities for Making Sustainability Happen in the region, particularly for the mining sector. You can read the full English translation of the article below.

Credit: Reproduced with permission from El Mercurio, 2024. Copyright 2024, El Mercurio S.A.P.

El Mercurio

Sustainability specialists Ana Amar and Natalie Nottage:

Experts detect that mining companies need to strengthen their work with communities

From the international consulting firm SLR, originally in the United Kingdom, they assure that they will expand in Chile and eventually have a presence in Peru.

An area for improvement for companies, especially those in the mining sector, is the relationship with communities, says sustainability consultancy SLR. "I think the main challenges for Chile is to do with working with communities, in being able to extract minerals from different places, access reserves and new exploration projects that are developed in harmony with the communities togenerate longer term value during the operation," says Ana Amar, director for Latin America at SLR.

Sustainability is becoming increasingly important for Chilean companies, especially those that supply international firms with raw materials. Natalie Nottage, SLR's Chief Operating Officer, says that, especially in the manufacturing industry, European and U.S. customers are taking an increasingly close look at responsible sourcing.

"We have an entire part of our business dedicated to helping customers ensure that the raw materials they use in their products are sourced responsibly, whether it is environmental sustainability or if it's human rights issues, we do audits in Africa, Asia, Latin America, of raw materials and we ensure that from the point of mine to the processing of the ore is sourced responsibly," says Nottage.

The need to comply with sustainability standards, along with the regulation and willingness of Chilean firms, makes the country attractive for SLR and its expansion.

The company has its origins in the United Kingdom. It entered Chile through the acquisition of Corporate Citizenship in 2020. Currently the office in Chile has about fifteen employees, and they plan to expand to more than 200 in the coming years. In total, the consultancy has a presence in six continents with more than 100 offices. Its plan is to advance in Latin America to countries such as Peru from the office in Chile.

The interest in the country stems from the fact that it is a "huge growth market" due to projected investments in infrastructure, mining and the energy sector, says Nottage. "That's very attractive to us, because it meets the needs of both the growth ambitions that we have and our goal to make sustainability a reality and improve it for the community here as well," she says.

Amar adds that "companies here have understood the relevance of the country within a transition to net zero and the achievement of the sustainable development goals."

Amar says that CMF rule 461 "has raised the bar towards transparency," in addition to defining the taxonomies of economic activities. "That will help you know how to have a game where everyone knows the rules and sets the standards to best practices," she says.

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