During two days the authors of 46 presentations discussed in Antofagasta City the recent advances and innovations of copper hydrometallurgical industry and research developments.

H ydrometallurgy continues it's growing as preferred technology to process copper low grade ores and some metallurgical materials. Several mining companies have adopted this technology for its high flexibility with low operational and capital costs.

The enthusiastic participation of professionals was met with great interest as 213 delegates from 14 countries participated in the HYDROCOPPER 2009 Workshop. Those in attendance included high ranking business executives, academics, engineers and specialists in various areas, such as leaching, solvent extraction, electrowinning, project development, QA/QC, modeling and control. Mining companies were represented by 77 delegates, engineering and consulting companies by 19, equipment and services providers by 69 and universities, research centers and NGOs by 48.

The Department of Mining Engineering at the University of Chile and the Organising Committee thank the collaboration of all the Authors, Participants, Session Chairmen, Members of the Advisory and Technical Committees and the Sponsor Companies for their contribution, participation and sharing the knowledge and expertise on process innovations and wet production practices of copper and its valuable products.

We invite the hydrometallurgical community to maintain its enthusiasm and to participate in the next 6 th version of the Workshop, HYDROCOPPER 2011.