We join leading Danish businesses during official royal visit to Chile

On 13 March 2013, our representatives visited Chile as part of an official business delegation. Danish companies from a range of sectors met with business executives and high-level decision makers from the Chilean private and public sector. The visit took place in conjunction with an official royal visit by His Royal Highness (HRH) Crown Prince Frederik and HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark.

While in Chile, our Chief Operating Officer – Antoine Labrosse and our Regional Manager of Business Development, Latin America – Alejandro Lasarte, participated in a seminar on aquaculture and fisheries. During the seminar, Mr Lasarte gave a presentation titled ‘Harvesting the world of water.’ It addressed the various services and technologies we provide to solve water challenges using smart solutions.

For example, we apply modelling technology to help authorities and producers define connectivity among farming neighbourhoods in order to minimise the spread of diseases. This helps make production sustainable and more secure – a major goal of the Chilean government following a 2007 outbreak of Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA).

In addition, our Group Director of Mining – Stefan Szylkarski gave a presentation on water issues associated with mining. He highlighted the importance of understanding the interactions between surface and groundwater in order to put effective environmental management approaches for mining activities in place. Physics-based modelling is a key tool for understanding mine hydrology. During the presentation Mr Szylkarski demonstrated how a physics-based mine model can be used to manage water at the mine and catchment scale.

Mining is a robust field in Chile. The country’s mining sector is one of the biggest in the world, producing about a third of the world’s copper, in addition to iodine, lithium, natural nitrates and molybdenum.

Moreover, Chile’s aquaculture industry has experienced remarkable growth since the late 1980s. A USD 2.9 billion industry, the Chilean aquaculture sector produces about 700,000 tonnes of trout and salmon annually. The country continues to be among the world’s leading producers of cultured salmonids. Aquaculture is fast becoming one of the country’s most important national economic pillars.

HRH Prince Frederik shaking hands with Alejandro Lasarte and Antoine Labrosse during the aquaculture seminar.