Freeport McMoran

Students at Cerro Verde School Shine with Out-of-This World Robotics Project

March 9, 2026

Three children of Cerro Verde team members showcased exceptional innovation, teamwork and engineering with projects exploring robotics for space exploration and mining during a trio of international competitions in 2025.

Ariana Gonzales, daughter of Cerro Verde President Tomas Gonzales; and Brinlee and Elise Clayton, the children of Casey Clayton, General Manager, Process; are students at SENA, a company-operated school in Arequipa that many children of Cerro Verde’s international workforce attend.

The competitions showcased innovation in the fields of science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.

In the category covering grades 6 through 8, the students earned the gold medal in the Gizmos Global STEM Competition with a project titled “Building the Future – Robotic Innovation for Mars Exploration.”

It used virtual simulations to explore the topic. That competition in May 2025 included participants from Latin America, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Then in October, Ariana, Brinlee and Elise finished first at the national level in Peru’s World Robot Olympiad in the Future Innovators Junior category. Their project, titled “Asteroid Mining Initiative,” proposed a method of transporting an asteroid into orbit around Mars where it could be safely mined for critical minerals and rare earth elements which would then be sent to earth. More than 70 teams across different grade levels and categories participated in the national competition.

Their first-place finish qualified them to represent Peru at the World Robot Olympiad international Finals in Singapore last November, where they did not place but competed alongside more than 3,000 students from 95 countries.

The students refined their engineering design and presentation through professional research and real-world engagement, including interviews and learning sessions with Cerro Verde engineers.

“Our students turned bold ideas into global innovation, proving that with the right mentorship and hands-on learning, young engineers can solve real-world challenges on an international stage,” said Arvind Reddy, an elementary and middle school teacher at SENA who along with fellow teacher Jim Stavridis coaches the STEAM program at the school.

“With the support of Cerro Verde and Freeport-McMoRan, students were inspired by industry engineers and gained real-world insights into solving complex engineering challenges,” Reddy said. “Bringing together engineering, innovation, and design thinking is essential for developing 21st-century learners, and our students demonstrated this through their success.”

SENA stands for Sistema Educativo Norte Americano or North American Educational System. The SENA school is operated by Freeport to provide the educational option for the expatriate community on long-term assignment at Cerro Verde. As SENA teachers, both Reddy and Stavridis are Freeport employees.

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