Jorge Valencia
Director of Blasting Solutions
Jorge is a Civil Mining Engineer with more than 18 years of experience developing projects around the world for mining, consulting, and explosive companies. Before joining Itasca, he worked at Nevada Gold Mines (a joint venture between Barrick and Newmont) as the Senior Drill and Blast Engineer at Phoenix mine. In 2021, he was appointed the Subject Matter Expert in Blasting for all the Nevada Gold Mines operations. His expertise is in Drill and Blast Engineering, Mine Planning, Machine Learning, Photogrammetry, and Applied Research in Blasting. In 2017 he was selected by the Fulbright Chile foundation to develop a Ph.D. in Mineral Resources Engineering at the University of Nevada Reno.
Education
Ph.D., Mineral Resource Engineering, 2022
University of Nevada Reno, United States
M.Sc., Civil Mining Engineering, 2016
University of Santiago, Chile
B.Sc., Mining Engineering, 2006
University of Santiago, Chile
Professional Memberships
International Society of Explosives Engineers (ISEE)
Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME)