José Sanhueza had a 17-year run in the state-owned copper company. He also had a vast career at the Compañía Nacional Minera (National Mining Company), where he was in charge of the Paipote smelter.

Chilean state mining company Codelco confirmed new changes in its organizational structure after the retirement of one of its long-standing executives -- deputy vice president, José Sanhueza Reyes, who submitted his voluntary resignation.

Following this decision, his position is also being eliminated “for having fulfilled its purpose of accompanying the organizational transition that meant the elimination of the Vice Presidency of Smelting and Refinery,” they detailed in report to financial markets commission (CMF).

The company thanked Sanhueza for his work. “His contribution and commitment throughout a long career in the company, always linked to the area of smelters and refineries.”

The professional, a civil engineer in metallurgy from the University of Concepción (1981), arrived to the national mining company Enami in 1983, where he held the position of manager at the Hernán Videla Lira Smelter (FHVL, known as Paipote Smelter), currently at a temporary halt.

Between 1995 and 1997, he was head of the Paipote Modernization Project.

He joined Codelco in 2007 as smelting manager in the El Teniente Division. From 2010 to 2019 he led the windows division as general manager and then became vice president of Smelting and Refining.

“From that position he worked to set a corporate vision in the management of these company's plants and in his last months, accompany the transfer of this business to operations,” copper company concluded.