Argentina must regain confidence internally with its society and outwardly, with those who make productive investment decisions ", says the mining secretary of the neighboring country, Daniel Meilán, referring to the challenges that this has to make the portfolio of projects In the mining sector.
Mauricio Macri's government is already well on its way to attracting such capital, through a series of measures, such as the elimination of withholdings on mining exports.
However, Meilán anticipates that it is not an easy or fast task, but there are already reactions. "We are seeing a positive first response in lithium mining, where the main companies of the world have settled in the Argentine northwest," he points out.
Although the momentum of mining was identified as a priority for the current administration, and efforts are being made to increase competitiveness and maintain economic stability favorable to its development, the secretary explains that "Argentina does not seek to be a mining country." He points out that the country "needs the activity to decentralize its productive economy, complementing agriculture, livestock, the automotive industry, the steel industry and tourism."
Chile and Peru have a clear mining vocation, Ecuador is also betting strongly to develop the sector. What advantages does Argentina have in attracting investment in this field? Argentina naturally has a very competitive mining potential, it does not have major conflicts and we are willing to accompany the development of the different infrastructures necessary to improve competitiveness.
Has the interest of the companies manifested itself only around lithium? In what situation is the metal mining? Our portfolio of more advanced projects includes copper, gold, silver, polymetallic and lithium. In our country, currently, among the 42 companies that are associated with lithium, are the eight most important in the world. The rest are of Chinese, French, Korean, Australian, Canadian, American, etc. origin.
As for metals, in 2016 Argentina reached the 11th place in the exploratory world, with US $ 140 million investment. Although we must work to generate external confidence, it can be said that it is still an interesting country because of its business potential.
Project Portfolio
Secretary Meilán acknowledges that there are at least nine mining initiatives that could be activated between 2017 and 2019. These would be the Pirquitas-Chinchillas silver project, located 30 km from Jujuy (planned for 2017-2018); The mega-copper venture Pórfido de Taca Taca, located in Salta (2018-2019) and the gold project Lindero, located in Salta (2017-2018).
Already under construction are Cerro Moro and Don Nicolás, both of gold and located in Salta. In the field of lithium, they have the initiative Olaroz, Orocobre, Jemse and Toyota (under the name Sales de Jujuy); The Cauchari-Olaroz project of Minera Exar; Salt of life, Galaxy Resources and Salt of Korea, and Salar del Rincon, Energy and Ady Resources.
"Argentina naturally has a very competitive mining potential, it does not have major conflicts and we are willing to accompany the development of the different infrastructures needed," says Daniel Meilán. In the region there is the idea of supporting investment megaprojects. What is done from Argentina to enable this type of initiatives? Argentina has made four megaprojects possible: El Pachón, Agua Rica, Taca Taca and Navidad. Taca Taca (from First Quantum) begins construction in late 2018 or early 2019. Agua Rica depends on the future of Alumbrera and / or an independent venture.
In the case of Christmas, the project is ready to begin, but the province of Chubut does not allow the development of metalliferous open pit mining in its territory. The State is working to agree with the province on the rehabilitation of mining development. About El Pachón, Glencore has not yet stated the development times of the project.
In addition, Mendoza has a series of porphyry-type projects under exploration status and, as with the province of Chubut, the national government is working to agree with the province on the rehabilitation of mining development.
Constellation, meanwhile, is close to pre-feasibility. It is binational (Chile-Argentina) and continues its development towards feasibility.
To contribute to the growth of the sector, Argentina has programmed a series of investments oriented to infrastructure and energy associated with mining and other regional activities, such as the railways of the northwest, those of Nuevo Cuyo and those of the Center and Patagonia.
Renewable energy is being tendered and, at the
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