The current executive president of the state mining company will leave his position at the end of August. "Backlashes", "frictions" and "not very fluid" relations between Codelco's top officials would have influenced the situation.

The National Copper Corporation of Chile (Codelco) requested the services of the recruiting company “Egon Zehnder”: it needs to find a senior professional for the vacancy that André Sougarret will leave.

The current executive president of the company presented his resignation from the position less than a year after taking office; and this will become effective on August 31.

Sougarret, after his resignation, explained difficulties in reconciling his work responsibilities with other aspects of his life.

“(…) It has not been easy to reconcile the demands of the position with the care of the other facets that make up the life of a human being,” commented the mining engineer in a letter he sent to the workers, in which he informed them of the decision I had made.

“RUFFLES” AND “AN INSANE LEVEL OF CHECKUP”

But also around this resignation, “frictions” were revealed with Máximo Pacheco, president of the board of directors of Codelco. Sources assured that his relationship with Sougarret would have been showing “wear and tear.”

In recent times, Pacheco has assumed the media spotlight for the mining company; and took the reins of the negotiations with private parties (SQM and Albemarle) within the framework of the National Lithium Strategy.

And Diario Financiero added another precedent: “an insane level of back-and-forth” among the copper company's senior officials.

Executives privately indicated to the aforementioned media that Sougarret was never able to have a completely fluid relationship with the Codelco executive committee, from where there was criticism of his management.

In his letter, Sougarret also admitted other details and self-questioning. He wrote: "(...) permanently in the exercise of this position I have asked myself if I have the skills, resources, competencies and energy that the corporation needs."

Finally, in his lines he reiterated that his resignation was put on the table with “the peace of mind of having delivered everything”, both in his duties and with his work team.

Regarding Sougarret, the state company highlighted that in his professional career he received important recognitions, among them, having been chosen as “Engineer of the year” by the College of Engineers of Chile in 2010; and the leadership role he assumed when the San José Mine accident occurred and the 33 miners who were trapped 700 meters deep had to be rescued.