The largest copper project awaits the RIGI and adds investments of US$ 790 million in 2026

The mining boom in Argentina would contribute some 30 billion dollars in exports in the middle of the next decade, and here part of that illusion is beginning to be built.

He road from the provincial capitalwhere the majority of workers and managers who usually go to the mine stay, to the northwest end of San Juan, in the department of Iglesia and over the Andes Mountains, it’s 12 hours and forces you to go in 4×4 vehicles.

Currently the access road is through the “East Corridor”, which has a first section of 260 kilometers of asphalt along National Route 40 to Guandacol, in the south of La Rioja, not exempt from landslides on the pavement that can delay traffic, mainly in summer. The next 8 hours are along a 200-kilometer gravel road, over a desert landscape that extends to the border with Chile.

The ascent, as the vehicles enter the unpopulated west of La Rioja and re-enter the north of San Juan, is accompanied by the need to drink excess water, a mandatory but not sufficient condition to avoid suffering from dizziness at altitude. Doctors recommend 1 liter of water for every 1,000 meters of altitude; a free trip to the bathroom every half hour.

Upon arrival at Batidero Camp, at 4,000 meters, it is requirement a visit to the medical guard to control blood pressure, temperature and oxygen, which is usually around 82%. Smokers have an advantage: with lower lung capacity they saturate oxygen better. It is common not to be able to sleep well on the first night due to the effects of hypobaric hypoxia -decrease in oxygen due to lower atmospheric pressure, approximately 610 hectopascals-.

Almost 2,000 people work directly for Vicuña, in rotating shifts that can last up to two weeks, like oil workers. The camp has a capacity of 1,068 guests, with 552 rooms, a dining room, a kiosk, a 24-hour gym, board games and televisions.

About 2,500 catering services are counted per day – provided by the San Juan company Caterwest, owned by Martín and Guillermo Ossa – and about 350 people are transported weekly, without counting the employees of 12 contracting companies that carry out infrastructure maintenance and waste management, among other tasks.

During the winter the pace of work slows down because the Temperatures in Filo del Sol can reach -40° (forty degrees below zero)although there were permanent tasks the past four winter seasons, starting in 2022.

The Vicuña Project, of the Australian BHP – the largest mining company in the world – and the Canadian Lundin Miningwas presented in December 2025 for accession to the Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI) as a Long-Term Strategic Export Project (PEELP)which commits disbursements for at least 2 billion dollars in the first two years since its approval.

The exact number of the investment program is kept under lock and key and few people know it, including company directors and government officials, so as not to affect market prices. However, some indications and statements from San Juan officials speak of US$ 15,000 million in stages, with a useful life of no less than 25 years.

Throughout this first quarter of the year, BHP and Lundin will present the technical report that integrates the Josemaría and Filo del Sol deposits and that will dimension the size of both projects, with their measured, indicated and inferred reserves of copper, gold, silver and other minerals, and from then on the planned investments will be known.

The latest estimates showed 11.53 billion tons of mineral resourcesof which 3,630 million tons (13 million tons of copper, 32 million ounces of gold and 659 million ounces of silver) are “measured and indicated”, with a greater degree of certainty that their exploitation is technically viable and economically profitable.

With these figures, Vicuña is ranked as one of the 10 copper, gold and silver projects with the largest amount of resources in the world.

Meanwhile, During 2026 the work plan is about US$ 790 milliondivided into US$ 395 million for each shareholder. Once the Government approves the RIGI and with a greater legal certainty from the changes to Law 26,639 -Glacier Law-miners will be in a position to confirm their final investment decision (FID).

Recently, the consortium awarded the construction companies Terusi and Semisa two sections of a total of 50 kilometers of the “Northern Corridor” for 40 million dollars, which will shorten the access roads and avoid passage through La Rioja. Later, the construction of another 170 kilometers of bischofite – a material that raises less dust – will be put out to tender to Angualasto, near the town of San José de Jachal.

In parallel, the engineering of an extra high voltage power line – at 500 kilovolts – is being designed exclusively to supply the mines and the camp, with the incorporation of renewable energies.

One of the previous works that Vicuña does, with the leadership of biologists and environmental experts, is the study of the flora, fauna and glaciers in the area. The consortium assures that it will not affect any glacier in the area of ​​its tasks; In your area there is GE110, only made of rubble, inventoried by the province, and one made of ice that does not have an official name.

The baseline of ice bodies shows a worrying fact: from 1976 to 2024, 90% of the frozen water surface was lost without even having started production, something they understand is a phenomenon caused by climate change.