Challenges of Structural Maintenance in Chilean Mining: A Diagnosis for Future Standards

Chilean mining, responsible for approximately 30% of global copper production, relies on numerous aging structural assets whose performance is critical for safety, sustainability, and operational continuity. Many plants, ports, and transportation systems are over 25 years old and have undergone accumulated modifications with incomplete traceability, introducing uncertainty into their reliability and hindering rigorous structural assessment. At the same time, the projected investment portfolio for 2024–2033, totaling approximately US$83 billion, reflects a shift from greenfield projects toward replacement and life extension strategies, increasing the importance of structural maintenance as a cornerstone of future mining competitiveness. However, Chile lacks unified guidelines for assessing and prioritizing structural risks, leading to inconsistent decisions across operations and limiting the ability to maintain comparable levels of reliability. This study diagnoses the technical, regulatory, and organizational gaps affecting structural management in mining and proposes the conceptual foundations of a risk-based prioritization model. The methodology integrates a review of regulations, analysis of publicly available structural failures, and documentation of actual practices at Chilean mining sites. The results reveal a predominance of reactive maintenance and variability in the definition of criticality among companies. The proposed framework establishes minimum criteria for prioritizing interventions using multidimensional risk assessment and defines the baseline conditions for an orderly transition to advanced lifecycle management strategies, including structural prognosis, digital twins, and Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems.