Fury over mining during engineers’ week: the prelude to a jump in employment in the provinces

The engineers celebrate their day this Saturday, June 6, in tribute to Luis Augusto Huergo, the first civil engineer in Argentina, who graduated that day in 1870. In the preview, they showed effusive interest in a sector that will demand their work in the next 10 years.

Pablo Berecirtua, president of the Argentine Center of Engineers (CAI), explained that “every dollar of export, mining transforms into nine dollars for the Argentine economy” and explained that the sector “currently mobilizes about 180 projects and 300 companies throughout its value chain; some numbers indicate that it is close to 40,000 jobs.” That figure is expected to triple in the coming years.

“Mining is generating about 7.5% of foreign currency for Argentina and in several provinces it represents about 80% of exports. This is just the beginning,” he indicated.

In dialogue with Clarín, the engineer, who is also Minister of Infrastructure and Mobility of the City of Buenos Aires, stated that “mining is already beginning to have an impact on the value chains, not only in the mining provinces but also in Córdoba and Santa Fe, with metal-mechanical industrial capacities.”

And he stressed that with the application of technology in the projects there are tasks that will improve the use of water and have greater resources for human consumption and food production.

For his part, Martín Pérez de Solay, CEO of Glencore Argentina, said that mining “has the potential to change the reality of Argentina.”

“The reality of some provinces such as Jujuy or Catamarca has begun to change. More than 70% of their exports come from lithium. It has not only been a growth in prices, it has been a growth in volumes that have been accompanied by employment, labor, local development. A lot of things that have made this become a reality,” he celebrated.

However, he warned that “both infrastructure and the development of local suppliers are challenges to be resolved.” “I think it is not good for mining companies to invest in infrastructure because our opportunity cost of capital has a lot of things that an infrastructure project does not have,” he said.

“If we miners end up building infrastructure, we end up greatly reducing the competitiveness of our project. As we greatly increase investment and begin to reduce returns, our competitiveness is lower. That makes a project face constant challenges,” said Pérez de Solay.

Meanwhile, the Secretary of Mining, Luis Lucero, said: “I pinch myself to confirm that what we are seeing is reality. The conjunction of positive factors that is occurring is unprecedented and with the leadership of President Javier Milei, certain brave decisions that he made, here we are.”

And he calculated that “by 2030, lithium exports of 7.4 billion dollars are expected. At these volumes, Argentina would position itself as the third exporter worldwide, behind Australia and China.”