1. CONTEXT AND PROBLEM STATEMENT Chuquicamata Division is a copper mining operation, with molybdenum as a by-product, located approximately 15 km north of the city of Calama, in the Antofagasta Region, Chile. The division is currently undergoing a transition from its historical open-pit operation to an underground mining scheme using the conventional panel caving method. This structural project, initiated in 2019, includes the operation of three main macroblocks (N1S1, N2N3, and S2S3) and aims to extend the life of the deposit by at least 40 years (Barindelli, López & Quiroz, 2004; Barindelli, Gálvez & Guerra, 2026). One of the main challenges associated with this transition is achieving production ramp-up under highly complex operational conditions. A key characteristic of Chuquicamata Division is that its concentrator plant processes ore from multiple sources: Chuquicamata open pit, Chuquicamata Underground, and Radomiro Tomic sulfides. This condition creates a blending scenario involving ores with different geometallurgical characteristics, where reporting reliability becomes critical. In particular, accurate estimation of feed grades is essential for constructing reliable metallurgical balances, controlling the process, and ensuring proper valuation of the processed material. From the Production Management perspective, it is essential to rely on robust methodologies that ensure the reliability of elemental grade reporting. Currently, this is addressed through systematic sampling plans at extraction points, which are defined based on planned tonnage extraction and the advance relative to the economic height of each point. These plans allow capturing ore variability and improving data representativeness in the short term. However, despite the application of standardized procedures, a significant gap persists between the grades reported by Chuquicamata Underground and those reconciled in the plant metallurgical balance. Based on the analysis of historical operational data, systematic differences are observed between mine-reported grades and those determined by the plant metallurgical balance, with average deviations on the order of 0.01% to 0.02% CuT, reaching higher values in specific periods. In addition to their magnitude, these discrepancies show temporal variability, highlighting limitations in sampling representativeness and in capturing the real dynamics of the transported ore. These discrepancies are mainly explained by time delays between extraction, sampling, and laboratory results—whose turnaround time can reach up to four days from sample collection—along with spatial representativeness limitations of discrete sampling and blending of different ore sources along the value chain. As a result, the operation lacks real-time visibility of the elemental composition of the ore (Cu, Mo, Fe, As), limiting the ability to perform timely process adjustments such as reagent dosing, pH control, and flotation strategies. This directly impacts metallurgical recovery and, consequently, copper production. In this context, accurate estimation and reporting of feed grades become critical for operational control, metallurgical performance, and economic valuation of the process. Therefore, it is necessary to implement a solution that enables continuous, representative, and real-time measurement of grades, reducing uncertainty and supporting more timely, data-driven decisionmaking. 2. OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE
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