Mining tech startups: what Aisoncore won at the Mining MAS Pitch and the barriers they face

Chilean platform Aisoncore won the third edition of the Mining MAS Pitch, a competition for mining tech startups organized by ME Elecmetal and DF MAS. Thirty startups applied, six reached the final and each had four minutes to win over a jury of mining executives and investors, according to Diario Financiero. The event drew about 500 people to the Mercado Urbano Tobalaba (MUT) in Santiago.

30

Applicant startups

mining technology

6

Finalists

a 4-minute pitch each

~500

Attendees

from the mining ecosystem

Source: Diario Financiero, November 5, 2026

View the data as a table

Applicant startups	30 | mining technology
Finalists	6 | a 4-minute pitch each
Attendees	~500 | from the mining ecosystem

What Aisoncore, the winner among mining tech startups, does

When a motor, pump or cylinder at a mine breaks down, it is sent to an outside workshop for repair. That trip, from the mine site to the workshop and back to the warehouse, can take months and is often tracked with spreadsheets and emails. Aisoncore, founded in 2020 by Patricio Rojas, digitizes the process.

Its platform, integrated with SAP according to DF, connects mining companies, workshops, carriers and technical inspectors. It shows where each component is and what state it is in, flags delays and shortens repair times.

• Where it operates today: at six sites run by Lundin Mining, Collahuasi, Kinross and Capstone Copper.
• What comes next: adding sites in Chile and entering Australia, where it is in talks with mining companies and plans a demonstration in the first quarter of 2027, according to Nicolás Pons, its growth leader.
• New product: this month it will launch a tool that lets mining companies compare suppliers in its network of 360 repair centers.

The other five finalists were Califix Compliance, Discovery, Nupav, Plutto and SentryApp.

The 5 barriers facing mining tech startups

During the event, Varinka Farren, executive director of Hub APTA, listed the five obstacles that hold mining tech startups back the most:

1. Funding.
2. Difficulty communicating their value proposition to mining companies.
3. Few opportunities to connect with companies.
4. Pilots that do not turn into purchases, because of resistance to change.
5. A shortage of technical and commercial talent.

The fourth barrier is the best known in the industry: a startup tests its technology at a mine site, the pilot works, but the mining company does not sign a contract. Ariel Medina, digital manager at ME Elecmetal, explained that turning a technology into value takes four pieces: a real operational problem, a technology specialist, an integrator who knows mining processes and a customer willing to pilot and then buy.

Why mining is looking for startups

Daniel Mas, Chile’s minister of both Economy and Mining, was the first government official to take part in the event. He recalled the goal of Chile reaching 6 million tonnes of copper within the next decade and said startups can contribute with artificial intelligence, sensors, robotics and drones.

Large mining companies are also moving. Reynaldo Martínez, asset performance manager at Gold Fields, said the company has been building a culture of innovation since 2019 and aims to create an innovation ecosystem that includes suppliers and startups by 2028.

The international guest was Tom Hunt, CTO of KoBold Metals, a US company that uses AI, sensors and historical geological data to look for copper, lithium and nickel, and whose investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Bill Gates’ fund and Sam Altman.

For the wider picture of entrepreneurship in the region, see entrepreneurship in Latin America in numbers.