Alberto Lavandeira Adán, a Galician mining engineer born in O Carballiño, is the head of Atalaya Mining, a Spanish company listed in London that produces copper at the Riotinto mine in Huelva.
With more than 40 years of experience in the mining and metallurgical sector, Lavandeira is one of the most internationally recognised Spaniards in the sector. After graduating from the Oviedo School of Mines, he worked in the Spanish subsidiaries of major mining operators such as Rio Tinto Plc, Anglo American and Cominco.
In 1995 he joined a small Canadian company, Rio Narcea Gold Mines, first as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and later became its CEO and President. During those years and until his departure in 2007, Rio Narcea started up three mining projects, from exploration to production, including Aguablanca (nickel), El Valle and Boinás (gold). Subsequently, and until his incorporation to the Riotinto project, the Galician executive led the start-up of the Mutanda mine, a large copper and cobalt project in Congo (DRC) as representative of the company Samref Overseas S.A.