Process to continuously prepare an aqueous mixture of epsilon-caprolactam and epsilon-caprolactam precursors

Process for preparing an aqueous mixture of ε-caprolactam and 6-aminocaproic acid and/or 6-aminocaproamide which involves as the reductive amination step, contacting 5-formylvaleric acid and/or an alkyl 5-formylvalerate in water as solvent with hydrogen and an excess of ammonia in the presence of a ruthenium on carrier as a catalyst, wherein the carrier is titanium oxide or zirconium oxide, graphite or carbon and the catalyst contains at least one of the metals of group 8-11, or a compound of these metals. The aqueous mixture can be used to prepare ε-caprolactam