Our People

Well-being in the workplace is one of our priorities. Beyond the salaries paid, we promote the physical, emotional, financial and social well-being of our employees through a series of initiatives. We seek to achieve a high level of engagement and a working environment that is conducive to the achievement of business objectives.

In 2023, we focused on mapping the profile of our personnel in terms of their career path, formal studies, interests and work purpose, in order to design new policies and programmes accordingly. This is a continuation of the plan we defined in 2022 for Organisational Effectiveness Management and is aligned with decisions made by the Board to strengthen our pillars and drive towards cultural change. We have monthly meetings with the People and Organisation managers at all our companies and are deploying our initiatives to evaluate and measure indicators accordingly.

We maintained a permanent hybrid remote and in-person working system through our Work-Life Balance Guidelines according to the Company’s operational needs. The guidelines are designed to improve the division of employees’ time between work, family and recreational activities, and the benefits provided go beyond the stipulations of Chilean legislation; for example, personnel are able to take up to a year off work for health or other reasons.

Our Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Strategy, launched in 2018, has transitioned from an awareness-raising phase about unconscious bias and discrimination to inclusive practices, becoming an integral part of how we work. Our Diversity and Inclusion strategy has the following focuses:

Gender Diversity

• Promote balanced, bias-free teams where talents are made visible and conciliation and co-responsibility are promoted

People with Disabilities

• Create working environments that provide equal opportunities for people with disabilities, allowing them to develop their full potential.

Global Profiles and Interculturality

• Manage inclusive environments for all people, regardless of their origin, ethnicity or nationality, incorporating talents from our local communities.

We focus on new, creative ways of thinking and strategies to foster inclusion in the workplace. In doing so, in 2023, we boosted our 58 protagonists’ network, our agents of change, to especially support women retention and the inclusion of employees with disabilities and different cultural backgrounds.

People with Disabilities

In 2023, people with disabilities account for 1.4% of our employees – above the minimum figure of 1.0% required by Chile’s Workplace Inclusion Law. We have also remained leaders of the Mining Council’s technical working group on universal access to mining sites for people with disabilities.

Gender Balance

Our affirmative actions are developed in recruitment and selection, leadership programmes aimed exclusively at women, learning and development programmes, and a work and compensation system. During the reported period, we paved the way to certification in 2024 in the NCH (Chilean Standard) 3262 on Gender Equality. Since 2018, we have made steady progress in increasing the representation of women in our workforce. In 2023, we increased the percentage of female employees to 23.7%, surpassing our internal goal of 22%.

In 2023, we prioritised initiatives to boost our female talent retention and attraction, including the Women Maintenance Apprentices Programme to train young mining maintenance female operatives,1 and specific programmes to strengthen the skills of female supervisors. We encourage women to apply to open positions and, on average, half of candidates for most of our job opportunities are women. In addition, we regularly oversee and review potential salary gaps based on experience rather than gender.

A total of 70 women, including executives,supervisors and operators, continued their participation in professional development initiatives and in our Female Leadership Programme during 2023 as part of our D&I strategy. This initiative promotes management enhancement, communication and empowerment among female team leaders to leverage effective leadership and improve team performance. 

Our Programmes and Actions

• Career mentoring for women.
• Training supervisors and Shift leaders: both involve attracting, training and accompanying women until they are fully installed in their role.
• Respectful environment workshops deployed in all companies (1,900+ participants).
• Relevos programmes in Los Pelambres and Antucoya.
• Hybrid working systems.
• Work and life conciliation.
• Co-responsibility measures.
• Female directors in three of four of our companies.

We operate long-term partnerships with universities that are strong in STEM careers, in order to increase female participation through our scholarship programmes. We have also approached DuocUC technical institute to arrange visits by female lecturers and students to Los Pelambres, to increase interest in the Electrical Maintenance and Instrumentalists degree programme.

At Antofagasta, we seek to strengthen human capital and talent at our Company and in the local communities where we focus our recruitment efforts. We strive to provide the proper tools, to enable our employees to develop their full and diverse potential, delivering innovative solutions to multiple challenges, and to support the digital transformation of our business.

Our pillars

Talent Attraction and Learning

• Young professionals
• Apprenticeship
• Programmes with a female focus

Leadership Development

• Aimed at our first-line managers and focusing on self-knowledge and team management.
• Development conversations for successors to key positions.

Integrated Talent Management

• Implementation of discussion roundtables twice a year with executives of our companies to analyse key performance indicators on talent attraction, retention and development of people in the Mining Group.
• Definition of critical positions and succession planning, as well as development plans.

Promoting Internal Mobility

We offer a formal Career Development process to boost our employees’ growth, focusing on the technical, behavioural, management training and other skills required for their current role, and with mobility alternatives for future development in mind. Employees can progress through the Competence Accreditation process (CCM: Consejo de Competencias Mineras or Mining Skills Council) that consists of an annual assessment during which the employee is evaluated in his/her role to accredit his/her development level. This tool supports internal mobility.

In parallel, a multifunctionality process seeks to ensure that experienced operators who carry out mine equipment replacements have the skills and minimum hours required to operate the equipment and achieve operational continuity by accrediting new competencies. The process fosters internal mobility, also allowing the generation of base quotas for entry into new parts of the apprenticeship programme.

Through the various training stages of our Apprenticeship Programme, we aim to develop skills for people with limited industry experience, in order to guarantee operational continuity and encourage internal mobility, to ensure that future positions created by vacancies, replacements or resignations are filled swiftly and effectively.

At Antofagasta we promote a relationship with the Company’s unions based on constant dialogue and mutual trust. We recognise and respect the unionisation and collective bargaining rights of our direct employees and contractors. We make continuous efforts to maintain dynamic links to maximise benefits to both parties.

Collective Bargain Agreements and Labour Relations

• 6 collective bargainings (2023)
• 11 Unions in our Mining Group
• 79% of our direct employees are unionised

In 2023, 79% of our direct employees are represented by 11 unions. As of September 2023, we have agreed to three-year collective contracts in a respectful environment and without interruptions. The agreements were reached with Centinela, Zaldívar and Los Pelambres unions.

Chilean legislation protects freedom of association, sets a minimum wage, limits working hours and enforces a minimum of 15 days of annual paid leave.

For workers who are not unionised – according to national legislation – their benefits are governed according to the provisions of their individual employment contracts or according to the clauses of the collective agreement to which they accepted the extension of benefits.

In the event of a significant operational change that could affect personnel, Antofagasta complies with Chilean legislation on minimum prior notice. Additionally, agreements are in place between unions and companies to accommodate exceptional working hours, authorised by the respective Regional Labour Directorate.

Digital transformation is becoming increasingly critical to our sustainability and competitiveness. We understand the need to prepare our people to learn new systems, technologies and programmes, to tackle productive processes through innovation. We work to empower our employees with state-of-the-art digital environments in which to develop new skills and leadership.

Since its foundation in 2020, our Digital Academy has sought to enhance and develop the skills required to join our innovation roadmap. Through mechanisms such as e-learning courses, boot camps, practical courses, and communities of practice, we aim to develop career opportunities at all levels of the organisation and boost productivity.

The “Management of Key Technologies” initiative reached new audiences in 2023, developing essential skills to effectively tackle the challenges posed by the digital era. The “Data-Based Decision Making” learning path has gained strength in data visualisation, analysis and reportability. We continued working on LinkedIn Learning and Coursera, and promoting participation and the importance of self-management of learning, having 714 workers use the platform during the year.

In 2023, a total of 1,253 workers were enrolled on courses to improve their knowledge of key technologies. At a more advanced level, and for the third consecutive year, we offered courses on data-based decisionmaking, attracting 236 attendees.

We continued to train our employees in remote operation of autonomous haul trucks in the Esperanza Sur pit at Centinela, along with tele-operated spreaders at our facilities. We plan to repeat the programme at our companies through to 2026. One of our main objectives is to reduce the risk of exposure to our workers.1 At the community level, Antofagasta Minerals has developed the En Red programme digital community in the territories where we operate

In 2023, as part of a joint effort in conjunction with the Mining Skills Council (CCM), we developed HUB 4.0 in the Antofagasta region. The aim was to strengthen the regional employment training ecosystem, boosting ties between education institutions and the mining sector to position the region as an Industry 4.0 leader, with a particular focus on the mining sector.3 Named Impulsa 4.0, it will develop the capabilities, skills and talents of the future, benefitting inhabitants, training centres, universities and companies across the region.