Innovation at Heights: Peru's First Silver Leaching Plant

“While some measured NPV, we were breaking technical paradigms… at 4,500 meters.”

Some achievements in mining get lost in financial statements, but leave deep technical footprints. One of them happened at the Uchucchacua Mine. Many of us had forgotten it… until this image brought back a feat that went beyond budget and blueprints. In the late 2000s, Minera Buenaventura took on a challenge that pushed financial logic and process engineering to the limit: operating Peru’s first silver oxide leaching plant. It was possible thanks to Don Alberto Benavides de la Quintana’s vision and the technical courage of a team that understood that innovating isn’t rhetoric, but decision. I remember the day when bar number 1000 was cast, marked “B 1000 U.P. Chacua”. It wasn’t just a number: it was proof that the impossible is possible when there’s courage and leadership. Between 2007 and 2009, we operated a complete silver leaching circuit at altitude. And it worked, in conditions where nothing follows the technical script. Read the full article here to discover how this operation opened a window to see our Andean mountain range differently, teaching us that Peru extends not just across territory, but also upward, with each zone and altitude having its own DNA.