Alberto Benavides still goes to work, every day. "I only have one hobby," he says, "geology."

Buenaventura's Benavides

He is 81 years old, the father of five and the grand old man of mining in Peru. He has seen Peru's mining industry grow from infancy into one of the largest in the world: the second highest producer of silver, the fourth of zinc, fifth of copper and eighth of gold.

The conquistadors were right in seeking gold in Peru, but in their day it was collected from rivers, not mined.

As a young man he worked for the American mining company Cerro Corp, which sent him off to Harvard, where he studied during World War II and earned a masters degree in mining engineering.

After he returned to Peru, Benavides got together a group of investors to acquire the Jualcani silver mine, east of Lima. The group's Buenaventura Mining Company is now the largest in Peru, employing 2,500 workers.

It controls four mines, two gold, two silver, and 43.5 percent of the Yanacocha gold mine, the largest open-face gold mine in the world.

Buenaventura's partners in that mine are Denver's Newmont, with 51.5 percent, and the International Finance Corporation, with 5 percent.

Benavides says he has seen "a tremendous change in mining" over the years.

Safety is now a top priority. "When I started, safety engineers were appointed to satisfy government regulations. Now they are probably the most important figures in the mines."

The minister of energy and mines, Jaime Quijandria, says that before a 1993 law was passed imposing strict environmental regulations on mines, much damage had been done by the industry.

Benavides says his company has already done a great deal towards mending its ways, and rectifying past damage to the environment.