About

Toronto-based gold-mining company Kinross began operating in Chile in 1998 after it purchased a 50% stake in in the Maricunga open pit mine. Today it is one of the world’s top five gold mining companies by production, attracting the best legal talents, including Ximena Matas the legal director for Chile. Matas is described by one peer as ‘a very competent and innovative general counsel who manages a broad range of issues’. In 2017 she helped the company divest its 25% stake in the Cerro Casale gold and copper project in northern Chile in a deal worth a reported $260m, and its 100% interest in the adjacent Quebrada Seca exploration project. The deals follow a challenging year for the company, which had its mining and crushing operations suspended by Chile’s environmental enforcement authority to temporarily curtail the pumping of water from the groundwater wells. In addition, its wholly owned subsidiary, Compania Minera Maricunga (CCM), was served with two separate lawsuits filed by the Chilean State Defense Counsel. Matas has gained recognition for her role in handling the appeals to the Chile’s Environmental Tribunal, filing the defences for the CCM litigation and for coordinating her team during a difficult time – as one source says, ‘she is a leader, a very strong team player, who is always encouraging her team’. This is in fact Matas’ second spell at Kinross in Chile; she re-joined in 2014 after two years as an intendant for the Chilean government. Her first spell in Kinross’ Chilean legal team immediately preceded her time in government and she was also an attorney at the National Environmental Council (CONAMA) in a four year period between 2002 and 2006.