Revitalizing the Peruvian mining industry through startups in Latin America

Contxto – Mining companies Buenaventura, Gold Fields, and Nexa, alongside the National Society of Mining, Oil and Energy (SNMPE) have joined forces to create the Mining Innovation Hub in Peru. The objective of this hub is to find solutions to accelerate the Peruvian mining industry with the zest for innovation that only startups know how to cook up.

This open competition calls for startups to present solutions that can enhance the productive efficiency of mining in Peru. Anyone interested has until December 13 to submit a project. It’s important to note that candidates don’t have to be from Peru to participate. The call for proposals is open to any startup from Latin America.

The competition presents five areas in which a startup can participate. These are productivity, community building, energy, safety, and the environment. Moreover, within each area there are particular challenges that must be addressed by participants.

The winners will receive support from the hub to solidify their projects. Likewise, their solutions will be integrated into the hackathons of the aforementioned mining companies. Lastly, those chosen will also partake in a training program for innovative collaboration in the mining industry.

Cluster development in Latin America

Apparently, one of the reasons that the hub was formed was due to Peru’s low ranking in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report. Under the category entitled “cluster development”, the country barely landed the 102 spot out of 141. Meanwhile, with Mexico creeping up to 36, Brazil at number 58, Chile at 78, and Colombia scraping into number 87, Peru lags far behind.

For its part, the Mining Innovation Hub hopes to grow in membership by 2020. It will be worth checking back on this same Competitiveness Report next year. Hopefully, these efforts will have yielded some results.

-ML