The coming mining map: million-dollar investments and little infrastructure to boot

The RIGI, created by Law 27,742 in 2024, guarantees fiscal, customs and exchange stability for projects that enter during 30 years. In concrete terms, he equated the Argentine tax burden with that of Chile and Peruthe two regional competitors that for decades concentrated regional investments in this sector. Added to this was the macroeconomic order, with a more predictable exchange rate and rules for turning profits.

There is another factor that for the mining companies’ headquarters in Toronto, London, Australia or Beijing weighs as much as geology: the precio of metals. Copper had never held values ​​above 6 dollars a pound for so long. With that floor, plus the stability offered by the RIGI, the equation changes its nature: it is not only that Argentina becomes competitive, but that the window is unusually wide.

The largest project in dance is Vicuna, a joint venture between the Australian BHPthe largest mining company in the world, and the Canadian Lundin Miningwhich brings together the Josemaría and Filo del Sol deposits in the San Juan foothills. The investment of 18 billion dollarsas presented by local management, is the largest private investment in the sector. This week it received formal approval from the RIGI for a first part, which will involve the disbursement of US$ 9,712 million. It is not just another advertisement: it is the conversion of an intention into a commitment with legal support.

San Juan also has The Bluesfrom the Canadian McEwen Mining Incaimed at cathodic copper production, with a RIGI approved by 2,672 million dollars for a project that is estimated to require a total US$4 billion. The Canadian company added as partners Rio Tinto already Stellar in this project.

Another copper giant awaits approval: it’s about the project El Pachónfrom the Anglo-Swiss Glencorewho made his request to the Regime for 11.6 billion dollars.

The expansion of the gold mine completes the San Juan map Gualcamayofrom the family and international holding company AISA Groupwith RIGI approved by US$665 millionand the expansion of Sailboatwhich Barrick operates alongside china Shandong Goldwhich also entered the regime with an investment commitment of 380 million dollars. As a whole, the province exceeds US$32 billion in mining investment commitments.

Few Argentine provinces have lithium, copper and gold in the same subsoil. Salta is one of them. The Anglo-Australian Rio Tintowhich in 2025 acquired Arcadium Lithium for US$6.5 billion and became the largest lithium producer in the country, advances with the Corner Projectthe first mining initiative that had its RIGI approved: 2,744 million dollars to produce 60,000 tons per year of lithium carbonate starting in 2028.

In copper, the province’s biggest bet is Taca Tacafrom the Canadian First Quantum which requested at the beginning of the year to join the RIGI for an investment of US$5.25 billion, one of the largest projects in South America. On the other hand, in silver and gold, the Canadian AbraSilver has the RIGI approved for Diablilloson the border with Catamarca, 764 million dollars.

Salta adds two more projects to the litiferous map. Poscothe South Korean steel leader, has the RIGI approved for Golden Saltwhich also shares with Catamarca, for US$845 millionand the Chinese Ganfeng Lithiumone of the world’s largest metal producers, in association with Lithium Argentinarequested to join the regime in March to Pozuelos Pastures Grandes: with an investment commitment of US$3 billion and a projected production of 150,000 tons per year.

Catamarca completes Rio Tinto’s litiferous portfolio, with Phoenix and Salt of Lifewhich add up to almost US$800 millionand hosts another part of the Glencore project, with RIGI requested but still pending: in addition to El Pachón, it has in its portfolio Rich Water (o MARA Project due to its junction with Alumbrera) US$6,699 million in copper, molybdenum and gold. If that approval comes, it will mark another milestone in the scale of commitments.

Catamarca also has the Australian Gallon Lithiumwhich received approval from the RIGI in July 2025 for Dead Man West by US$292 milliona smaller-scale project than those of Rio Tinto or Glencore, but which adds to the profile of a province that consolidates its place as one of the densest mining nodes in the country.

Jujuy has only one project on the RIGI map, but it is not minor. Excontrolled by Ganfeng and Lithium Argentinahas approved the Regime since May for the expansion of Caucharí Olaroz with an investment of 1,241 million dollars to add 38,000 tons of lithium carbonate per year to an operation that is already in production. It is not a project on paper: it is an ongoing mine that is escalating.

Historically reluctant to metal mining, Mendoza added its first project under the RIGI: the Saint Georgein Uspallata, with US$891 million investment for copper and gold exploitation, by the Swiss company Zonda Metals and the Alberdi Groupof Argentine capital. Construction is scheduled from June 2027 and commercial operation in January 2029.

Between 1990 and 2003, Chile multiplied its copper production almost threefold: from 1.6 million tons annually to more than 4.5 million. By 2006, copper exports reached a historical record of $33.3 billion. In 2025, they reached US$52,997 million. The curve did not stop. But that leap came on decades of stability that began decades before, with Decree Law 600 of 1974, which guaranteed fiscal stability and free repatriation of profits; the Mining Code of 1983, which consolidated the concessions regime and the consolidation of the democratic transition starting in 1990. Three decades with the same architecture, despite the political changes.

Argentina seeks to travel that path in a fraction of that time but mining does not reach a prepared territory. The first challenge is the most concrete and the most urgent: the physical infrastructure. The provinces where the projects are located do not have the energy, roads or railways that mining on this scale will demand. The solutions will depend on case-by-case negotiations between investors and the provinces, in a territory where building is expensive, slow and complex.

San Juan, for example, has only one high-tension cable to solve all this: the Nueva line San Juan–Rodeotoday at 132 kV, which the ENRE authorized to raise to 500 kV with access priority for Vicuñaaccording to Resolution 79/2026, to supply the 260 megawatts that the first stage of Josemaria.

The decision generated formal opposition from The Blueswhich complains to ENRE itself against this priority regime, and added the rejection of other mining companies and provincial actors. The fight is not about copper: it is about who gets the energy to get it out.

The second challenge is the supplier chain. The RIGI establishes that up to a 20% of a project’s purchasing may come from local companies, but provinces have their own overriding demands, and overlapping frameworks can lead to real conflicts when projects move from announcement to construction. The regime also makes it possible to import key inputs with zero tariffs and pay for them in dollars abroad: an advantage for the investor that, poorly articulated, can reduce local development.

The third is the specialized talent. The technical profiles required by large-scale mining are not abundant on the projected scale. But Argentina has an advantage over Chile, which is the base of contractors trained in oil and gas of Neuquén and the San Jorge Gulf, with capabilities in precision logistics and operational maintenance.

For a part of the country, mining is a distant industry, with benefits that do not arrive. But Argentina needs to earn export currency and copper and lithium are two of the most in-demand minerals of the 21st century. The global energy transition needs them for cables, batteries and electric motors. The company that manufactures the electric car that is sold in Europe is already looking for them in Argentina. Each ton exported loosens the foreign exchange restriction that, in one way or another, ends up affecting the price of everything purchased in the country.

The second argument is territorial. San Juan has 818,000 inhabitantsSalta 1.4 millionCatamarca 430.000. They are territories where there is no other economic activity on that scale and, furthermore, mining does not displace existing industries, but rather occupies a space where there is nothing else.

As large copper projects advance towards 2032, the network of suppliers that should support them grows, but is not necessarily organized. The discussion has already taken concrete form: the mining provinces are advancing their own buy local laws that go against the 20% set by the RIGI at the national level.

In a conference on “The competitiveness of the Argentine mining value chain”, organized in the National Congress by Catamarca legislators Flavio Fama and Fernanda Ávila, Franco Mignacco, Mining representative of the UIA, stated that the RIGI enables up to 20% local purchasesbut the provinces have their own demands that They far exceed that floor.

In fact, in Holy Crosswhich is currently the leading exporter of minerals, the hiring of local personnel reaches 90%. The UIA’s request to legislators was direct: we have to harmonize. Nobody, yet, knows who has to do it.

Added to this tension between the Nation and the provinces is another, more internal tension: that of the supplier network itself. In San Juan alone there are more than 25 chambers of mining supplierseach with its own agenda and its own vocation for representation. And while the cameras discuss how to coordinate, on the field the game is already being played without waiting for them.

The awarding of part of the Vicuña project camp, in San Juan, to a consortium made up of the Chinese PowerChinathe manufacturer Beijing Chengdong y RAFA SA from Santa Fereopened the discussion about how much of the mining investment really remains in the country.

FAPROMINthe federation that brings together the chambers of Jujuy, Salta, Catamarca, San Juan and Santa Cruz, described the decision as “a blow to the interests of Argentines”; meanwhile, the Argentine Chamber of Mining Suppliers (CAPMIN)an entity that claims to represent “all Argentine provinces,” is working to present the national government with a RIGI project for the mining value chain that favors the country’s productive framework.