The second largest company in the world accelerates lithium and copper projects in Argentina

As participants of the CERAWeek 2025 -The biggest world energy conference, which takes place this week in Houston, Texas, United States-, Clarion He could hear in the first person the relevance that Argentina won in the global asset portfolio of Rio Tinto, a mining company who is a central player in the world for the Energy transition With the production of lithium and copper, two critical minerals for the electrification.

The Rigi, approved last year in the Bases Law after an arduous discussion about its productive and economic effects -. Advantages granted in taxes, imports, access to dollars, origin of added value, stability and legal certainty– it’s a game changer (Change of play) For a company like Rio Tinto.

The company authorities permanently highlight the 30 -year stability that guarantees the regime, supported with arbitration protections in international courts In case another government wants to change the rules of the gamewhich gives them the “predictability“That they need in an industry that has very long -term investments and with a lot of time to repair them.

Despite capital controls –Standing to the dollar-, that all foreign mining companies and oil companies would see healthy to be eliminated to be able to repatriate their profits and ensure that their investments can be removed at any time, in Rio Tinto they trust the rigi, which encapsulates them of the constant changes that may exist in the country.

The main project of Rio Tinto in Argentina is in the Salar de Rincónnorthwest of Salta, where it already has active about 3,000 tons of lithium carbonate in battery degree and soon its Expansion to progressively achieve a production of 60,000 tons from 2028 -in a ramp up 3 years old-, with investments for 2.5 billion dollars and exports that will exceed US $ 600 million per year.

The export value of this project is the same as foreign sales that had the entire country in 2024.

The international lithium price climbed quickly above US $ 80,000 At the exit of the pandemicbut then descended to US $ 10,000which left the market outside dozens of projects worldwide. With the new energy policy of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, the transition to less polluting energies will be slower.

With the recent purchase at US $ 6.7 billion arcadium lithium (Result of the fusion of the American Livent and the Australian Allkem last year), Rio Tinto also obtained another 2 of the 6 lithium projects that are in operation in the countrylike Phoenix, in the Salar of the Dead Man (Catamarca), and Olaroz (Jujuy).

According to their annual report, in 2025 they hope to close agreements with land owners to develop their carbon management projects.

In March 2022, Rio Tinto had bought for US $ 825 million Rincón Mining Pty Ltd, a company that owns the Salta project. Rio Tinto, founded in 1873, is a global company with a diverse production of metals and minerals that has operations in 35 countries and 60,000 employees in the world.

With the first pilot plant, La Minera has a commercial demonstration that allows analyzing the process of construction and production, recovery of lithium and product quality, operational training, identifying design improvements and operation of a project on a larger scale.

In December 2024, the Rio Tinto Board of Directors took into consideration “The economic reforms of Argentina and the rigi“To approve the project for the production of 53,000 tons per year of lithium carbonate battery using the technology of direct extraction (dle)which allows the mineral to have in 24 hours, unlike the evaporation method in pools, which takes at least one year.

The construction of the commercial plant will begin as soon as Río Tinto obtains the relevant environmental permits of the Government of the province of Salta, which could be issued in the middle of this year. Its process will demand a total of 2,500 workers on the peak, since 2026.

The Rincón Salar has about 83,000 hectares in the northwest of Salta, near the border with Chile, and is located in the triangle of the lithium, which Argentina, Chile and Bolivia share, and the production costs are lower than in Australia, where instead of the salt flats, the lithium is extracted from the hard rock.

On the other hand, Rio Tinto also has participation in the Los Azules copper project, in San Juan -through its affiliated Nuton in McEwen Copper -, which also recently requested its entry to the Rigi to invest about US $ 2.7 billion.