Geometallurgy (overall line), specialized in rol of gangue (in particular fines and ultrafines) in the recovery of Cu and other elements from Andean ore deposits combined with characterization techniques and proceedures. Sideline: nonmetallics.

Undergraduate teaching for students of geology and metallurgical engineering (on an anual basis).

- In geology participation in low temperature metamorphic petrology (also first introduction to alteration mineralogy and methods of XRD analysis)
- In metallurgical engineering coordinator of the applied mineralogy course, contributing with the use of XRD, XRF and electron beam techniques for either laboratory or on site characterization.
- Voluntary course on non-metallic raw materials for students from engineering and geology in alternation with a course on clay mineralogy.

Teaching at master and doctoral level:

Part of core teaching staff of master in mineralogy applied to geometallurgy (GEA, Univ. de Concepción), teaching of analytical techniques (X-ray techniques and thermal analysis), clay mineralogy. Current director of this master programme. For the geology doctoral programme, coordination and teaching of course "Project development", and "clay mineralogy" and "characterization of geomaterials". Tutition of master thesis involving clay minerals (mineralogy). Co-tuition of doctoral thesis at the Technical University Mining Academy of Freiberg (TUBAF), Germany, on Cu-smelter slag characterization and environmental stability (cooperation with the Institute of Mineralogy of TUBAF). Supervision of exchange students (currently two) from TUBAF at master level and preparing them for interaction with national mining community as part of a joint R & D project on secondary mining.

Contract research (12) for in the field of mineral characterization for mininig companies (mainly Codelco Divisions, El Tesoro). Characterization is carried out by the geometallurgy group at U de C and results are transfered to the mining company by either presentation on site or visit of the company staff to Concepción university. Transfer in most cases equals a "one day short" course, resulting in further contracts and reference for and specific training on mineralogical problems. A similar proceedure is applied to consulting firms for the mining and construction industry.
During the past years reference expert for the characterization of clays and fine grained mineral phases in Chile (e.g key note speaker at JRCAP seminar on clays in geometallurgy, Valparaiso, 2013).