Leonardo Meza

​Leonardo joined CRU in April 2023 as CRU's Smelting and Refining Lead, developing and implementing the copper, nickel, zinc smelting and refining cost models, collecting and forecasting production and cost data for smelting and refining operations primarily focusing on the copper, nickel and zinc industries.

He also conducts bottom-up analyses of the cost structure and performs top-down reconciliation of costs from information found in company financial and technical reports. In addition, he produces analysis on short and long-run marginal costs; operational competitiveness; project evaluation; industry cost structure; asset valuation; and how costs influence metal prices at different stages in the economic cycle.

Leonardo is a Chemical and Environmental Engineer with 15 years of working experience in the copper mining industry. Starting in data analysis operation in smelting processes as a Process Control Engineer and then as Plant Manager for oxygen, air, and water supply at Chagres Copper Smelter in Chile. Then he joined Wood Mackenzie as a copper smelting and refining cost analyst and, before working for CRU, he worked for Codelco as a business intelligence analyst for copper markets.