On behalf of the Organizing Committee of the 12th International Congress of Prospectors and Explorers (proEXPLO 2021), which I am honored to chair, I am pleased to announce the next edition of this event, which has managed to position Peru as an international host of the latest advances in mining exploration in the world.

On this occasion, I am pleased to announce that proEXPLO 2021 will be held completely online, which represents a new and extraordinary challenge for the Organizing Committee. From the Peruvian Institute of Mining Engineers (IIMP) and under the slogan Mineral Resources for a Sustainable Future, we will seek to continue strengthening the links among academia, industry and mining investors, with a view to reinforcing the development of mining exploration in an environmentally clean environment.

For this purpose, we have planned an innovative program of activities entirely focused on the business of mining exploration, which is organized in three framework sessions:

1. Innovation in Exploration, in which new technological tools applicable to mining exploration will be presented and discussed,
2. Exploration Successes, aimed at presenting new deposits discovered in Peru and Latin America; and
3. Optimal Transition: From Exploration to Mine, aimed at presenting the engineering processes that turn discoveries into profitable mining operations.

We invite universities, geological services, mining companies, exploration companies and investors in general to participate in the different sessions scheduled, as well as in our traditional Technological and Commercial Exhibition, which allows exploration service companies to show the latest technological advances aimed at improving productivity and relations with the social and environmental context of mining companies.

Additionally, in proEXPLO 2021 we will be launching the First Exploration Projects Fair, as a new business networking platform between small mining investors and large mining companies or investment funds, interested in expanding their portfolios.

We also invite owners of mining concessions to present their projects, technically supported, to be exhibited during the event.

We welcome national and foreign mining speakers and investors, professionals of the sector, and students. We are sure that proEXPLO 2021 will meet the expectations of our participants in this first online edition of proEXPLO, from March 22nd to 26th, 2021.