The lost energy flowing into Minas Buenaventura’s operations

Compañía de Minas Buenaventura is a Peruvian mining company that extracts and processes metals such as gold, silver and copper from mines across the country. 

Mining operations consume large amounts of energy to move, process and manage materials across sites.

For this reason, electricity is one of Compañía de Minas Buenaventura’s largest operating expenses. Besides, fluctuations in energy prices can lead to sharp and unexpected increases.

However, it is worth noting that large volumes of water flow through Compañía de Minas Buenaventura’s mining operations every day (to support mineral processing and other industrial activities).

As this water moves through pipelines and reservoirs, it often carries pressure and hydraulic energy that to date, remains unused.

Minas Buenaventura did try to tap into it in the past. Nevertheless, existing power generation technologies are ill-suited to the infrastructure and operating conditions at mining sites.

Transforming mining pipelines into electricity lines 

Easy Hydro is an Irish climate-tech company that helps water-intensive industries generate electricity from water that is already flowing through their existing infrastructure.

The company designs and installs compact hydropower turbines based on a technology known as Pumps as Turbines (PAT), which converts the pressure and movement of water inside pipelines into electricity.

Rather than requiring the construction of new dams or water infrastructure, the solution integrates directly into existing pipe networks.

For Compañía de Minas Buenaventura, this means that water already circulating through its mining operations can be used to generate electricity.

As a result:

• Compañía de Minas Buenaventura reduces its electricity purchases.
• The company becomes far less exposed to energy price fluctuations (since it produces its own energy).
• Minas Buenaventura also decreases its CO₂ emissions associated with traditional electricity purchases.

All in all, cheaper and cleaner energy!

“

The EU-LAC experience has allowed us to validate our technology under real operating conditions across different types of mines, build relationships with local companies, and gain valuable insights concerning the Latin American market.

Miguel CRESPO, Co-founder & CTO, EASY HYDRO

The EU-LAC Digital Accelerator support: Making the innovation realistic and financially viable

• Service n°1: PoC design & Prototyping

Through this service, the partners intended to “de-risk” the innovation, ensuring it yielded results on operating expenses and was technically feasible.

It for instance identified the technical requirements of the pilot (e.g. sufficient water flow and pressure through the pipelines) and prioritised the results to be measured (kWh of electricity generated, percentage reduction in electricity purchased from the traditional network, etc.).

“

EU-LAC gave us access to technologies that are difficult to find in our local market (Peru). They helped us develop a robust business case and technology roadmap tailored to the sector’s needs. What excites us most is seeing how this technology can create value through cost savings, resource reuse, and efficient energy management within a circular economy process.

Jean Louis FALEN, Corporate Head of Innovation, MINAS BUENAVENTURA

• Service n°2: Business model design

Finally, the Business Model Design service also helped Easy Hydro move from a technical solution to a commercially structured offer for Compañía de Minas Buenaventura.

The partners evaluated the economic value of the solution, estimated costs and benefits, and explored how the technology could be adopted more broadly across mining operations.

As a result, Easy Hydro obtains a validated, site-specific business model showing how the solution is sold, how revenue is generated, and under which conditions both partners achieve financial benefit.

The outcome: reduces electricity costs on all kinds of mining operations