María Elena Valencia Vera

María Elena Valencia Vera is an accomplished geomechanics consultant and engineer with extensive experience in the mining industry. Currently employed at ITASCA Chile since July 2019, María Elena has previously worked as a project engineer at BCTEC Ingeniería y Tecnología, focusing on operational flow risk analysis at Cadia Valley, and as a researcher with the Advanced Mining Technology Center, where key contributions included numerical and physical modeling of gravity flow for block caving. Education includes a PhD in Mining Engineering from Universidad de Chile, complemented by a bootcamp in mobile applications. Teaching roles at Universidad de Chile involved part-time lectures and coordinative responsibilities in mining engineering courses and symposiums, reflecting a strong commitment to both research and education in the field.