Pabla Perelló – Marimaca Copper

Pabla Perelló spent fifteen years moving through the upper ranks of Chile’s mining sector—Codelco, BHP, Antofagasta Minerals—before stepping into her current role as General Counsel at Marimaca Copper. Her exposure in the mining industry coincided with a broader, personal familiarity with mining. Perelló is the daughter of José Perelló, an internationally recognized geologist whose career included major copper discoveries in both the national and international arenas. Each stop added a new layer to how she sees the industry: a different ownership structure, a different compliance philosophy, a different set of stakeholders to satisfy. Today, six weeks into the new position, she is applying everything those years produced to a company at a pivotal moment in its development.

Pabla Perelló | Marimaca Copper | General Counsel

Chile’s copper industry is not a forgiving classroom. The country produces roughly a quarter of the world’s supply, and the regulatory, political, and social pressures surrounding that output are relentless and constantly shifting. For Perelló, navigating those pressures across three major mining houses gave her something no single employer could have provided: a panoramic view of how legal risk is constructed, managed, and, when poorly handled, compounded into something far more damaging than it needed to be.

At Codelco, the state-owned giant and the world’s largest copper producer, she learned how regulatory exposure is inseparable from government policy and public accountability. The company’s unique relationship with the Chilean state means that every legal decision carries a dimension of national interest, and risk management must account for political dynamics as readily as it accounts for regulatory text. BHP offered a contrasting perspective—a global compliance culture that demanded anticipating change before it arrived and embedding risk management directly into operations rather than layering it on afterward as a corrective measure. Then came Antofagasta Minerals, where the calculus shifted once more: a Chilean private company competing in a market with rising expectations from regulators, investors, and the communities located nearest its operations.

“Over the past 15 years at Codelco, BHP, and Antofagasta Minerals, I’ve gained a broad perspective on regulatory risk, stakeholder engagement, and environmental compliance in Chile’s evolving legal and political landscape,” Perelló says. “At Codelco, I learned how regulatory risk is deeply tied to government policy and public accountability. At BHP, I experienced a global compliance culture where anticipating change and embedding risk management into operations was critical.”

The compliance stakes are no longer abstract

The legal terrain has changed considerably since Perelló began her career, and no single development illustrates that shift more starkly than Chile’s new Economic Crimes Law. Where environmental non-compliance once carried reputational risk above all else, it now carries the genuine prospect of criminal liability—prison sentences for executives, legal officers, and others deemed responsible for serious violations. The implications reach far beyond individual cases; they restructure how companies must think about governance and accountability from top to bottom.

“Under Chile’s new Economic Crimes Law, failure to comply doesn’t just mean reputational damage—it can mean criminal liability and imprisonment,” she says. “That reality changes the way we frame compliance: it’s not optional, it’s fundamental to protecting both the company and its people.”

That framing shapes how Perelló approaches her earliest weeks at Marimaca. Building on the progress already achieved, including the approval of the RCA (environmental permit) for the Company’s flagship Project, the Marimaca Copper Project, she has focused on continuity and adaptation. Two immediate priorities have guided this work: ensuring that all permits, filings, and compliance obligations remain current and fully aligned with the new legal framework, and embedding legal oversight across the company´s core operations, from finance and contracts to procurement and environmental management. The aim is not a legal department that reviews documents at arm’s length but one woven into the decisions being made in real time. The tender processes for the project’s main contracts have also demanded early attention, given their role in setting the terms for how risk is allocated and how partner relationships are governed going forward.

Marimaca Copper is a Toronto Stock Exchange-listed copper development company advancing its flagship Marimaca project in Chile’s Antofagasta Region, one of the world’s most productive copper belts. The Project is rapidly advancing its sustainable development plan to produce high-quality copper cathode, with the intention of becoming Chile’s newest green copper mine. The company is currently navigating project finance while simultaneously securing critical permits and mining easements required before construction can proceed. That convergence of financial and regulatory timelines makes the legal function particularly consequential right now, and it is precisely the kind of complexity Perelló has been preparing for throughout her career. Marimaca has always set itself the objective of operating with the highest standards of corporate responsibility. The challenge now is to uphold and strengthen that commitment as the company grows at an exponential pace. In that context, the legal function plays a central role-not in isolation, but as part of a broader team effort to ensure that governance, compliance, and stakeholder engagement evolve in step with the company´s expansion. Perelló’s experience and perspective have been key in helping Marimaca adapt its legal framework to this new stage, reinforcing the company´s long-standing values while preparing it for the complexities of Chile´s mining future.

Building trust from the inside out

Perelló is deliberate about how she describes the early work of establishing credibility in a new organization. Quick wins matter—strengthening compliance practices, refining contract processes, and advancing tender procedures—but they serve a larger purpose beyond the immediate result. They demonstrate that the legal function, working hand in hand with other teams, produces useful output, and that demonstration is what earns a seat at the table when larger decisions are being shaped.

“To build early credibility, I’ve focused on quick wins—strengthening our compliance practices and refining contracts—while laying the groundwork for longer-term initiatives like stakeholder engagement and benchmarking,” she says.

From the outset, the legal team has worked alongside permits, environmental, and procurement colleagues to ensure alignment with the company´s broader objectives. The intention is explicit: legal should function as a partner in decisions, not a checkpoint that creates friction. Externally, Marimaca has opened early dialogue with regulators and community stakeholders, recognizing that these relationships are best built before they are tested by a dispute or delay. The trust established through routine engagement is qualitatively different from what can be assembled under pressure, and the team’s collective experience has shown the value of that approach. To maintain external rigor, Marimaca also works with leading Chilean law firms that provide outside benchmarking and validation. For Perelló, that external layer is a resource as much as an accountability mechanism—a way of confirming that the company’s positions hold up against the highest available standard rather than merely satisfying internal review.

Anticipating the road ahead

There is a longer arc to the work Perelló is describing, one that extends well past the initial transition period. She and the team are advancing a compliance and crime prevention model i—an effort designed to ensure that risk management is embedded in how Marimaca sources goods and services at every stage of the project lifecycle, not applied retrospectively after decisions have already been made.

“My perspective now is that legal counsel must go beyond compliance checklists,” she says. “We need to anticipate reforms, build trust with stakeholders, and ensure that Marimaca is positioned not only as a responsible actor but also as one that is legally safeguarded in Chile’s mining future.”

That orientation—toward anticipation rather than reaction—connects everything she has built across her career. The lessons from Codelco, BHP, and Antofagasta, the hard reckoning with Chile’s new legal framework, the deliberate construction of internal and external relationships: all of it points toward a common understanding. In a country where copper is not merely an industry but a pillar of national economic life, the legal function increasingly determines whether a project advances on schedule or becomes mired in the kind of complications that compound over time. Perelló joined Marimaca with that understanding already in place. What she is building now is the structure to act on it consistently.

Marimaca has always set itself the objective of operating with the highest standards of corporate responsibility. The challenge now is to uphold and strengthen that commitment as the company grows at an exponential pace. In that context, the legal function plays a central role—not in isolation, but as part of a broader team effort to ensure that governance, compliance, and stakeholder engagement evolve in step with the company’s expansion. Perellóo’s experience and perspective have been key in helping Marimaca adapt its legal framework to this new stage, reinforcing the company’s long-standing values while preparing it for the complexities of Chile’s mining future.