Chilean convention draws international attention

For exhibitors at any trade show, the true measure of success is the number of contacts and sales leads generated.

Judged by that criterion alone, the recent Expomin Mining Convention in Chile’s capital city seems to have been a huge success.

For example, when Rolf Pedersen of the geophysical company Geoterrex was asked whether the show was worth the expense, he pulled out a fistful of business cards from contacts based not only in Chile but in Argentina, Bolivia and Peru.

“It’s not an exploration show; it’s not a geophysical show,” he said. “But I’ve got lots of contacts.”

Jon Baird, managing director of the Canadian Association of Mining Equipment and Services for Export (CAMESE), spoke with CAMESE members who had set up booths in the Canadian Pavilion and found that “there’s hardly anyone who finds it below his expectations.”

According to Michael Allan of Vancouver-based engineering firm H.A. Simons, “when they (the exhibition organizers) say 25,000 people will visit the convention through the week, you can believe it. The volume of people is certainly there.”

“My general observation,” said Gonzalo Munoz, commercial officer for the Canadian Embassy in Santiago, “is that the exhibitors are happy with the contacts and sales leads.”

Expomin runs every two years. In 1992, 90 Canadian companies had set up booths promoting their wares. This year, 140 Canadian companies had booths in the 2,000-sq.-metre Canadian Pavilion.

The considerable size of the Canadian contingent — together with the fact that countries such as the U.S., Australia, South Africa and Chile went to the expense of housing exhibitors in pavilions — proves that the show is taken seriously. (There were also outdoor exhibits, where the bigger machinery, such as Caterpillar’s giant 944 front-end loader, was on display.) “When you come down here, you see that the centre of gravity of mining has moved south,” Allan said.

Indeed, Munoz noted that 27 Canadian mining companies — among them, the majors such as Placer Dome and Inco — have permanent offices in Santiago. “It’s a platform for doing business throughout Latin America,” he said. In Chile alone, there is plenty of business. The huge state-owned copper company, Codelco, buys $500 million worth of goods and services every year. Factor in the buying power of all the smaller, privately owned “mom-and-pop” metal mines and such foreign-owned entities as Lac’s El Indio and Falconbridge’s Collahausi (which, in aggregate, will surpass Codelco in terms of value of output next year) and it’s obvious why manufacturers and service companies flock to Expomin.

Chile is the economic powerhouse in Latin America. For each of the past 10 years, gross domestic product has climbed an average 7%. Munoz predicts 1994 will mark the 11th consecutive year of such growth. “This has occurred even though there has been an international recession and the price of metals was going down,” Munoz pointed out.