Investment Opportunities

For a long time, mining in Argentina was known for being oriented to the domestic demand of mining raw material, and having a strong presence of the National Government in exploration and exploitation stages as well as in the consumption of metalliferous minerals, and the predominance of small and medium-sized companies in the exploitation of industrial rocks and non-metalliferous minerals.
Throughout the 1990’s, the progressive worldwide depletion of mineral deposits led to the boom of the global demand for raw materials, placing Argentine deposits in the spotlight of foreign mining investors. In order to attract these investments, the National Government implemented a substantial modification in the legal framework that regulated mining activity, thus generating investment conditions that met the globally dominant business strategies.
Legal, fiscal and technical conditions were established, ensuring a secure investment framework and a predictable mining business environment, including fiscal stability among other incentives.
These changes created the necessary framework to attract the foreign direct investment flow and, at the same time, established the significance of the vast and undeveloped geological- mineral potential of the country.
Consequently, mining activity in Argentina experienced important changes during the 90’s and the beginning of the 21st century:

  • The influx of large foreign companies that made significant investments in mining exploration and exploitation, mainly corresponding to metallic minerals.
  • The growth of production volumes and mining products exportation, particularly metals, displacing the production of industrial minerals and industrial rocks. This growth was benefited by the increasing demand for metallic minerals in the international market as well as by the large investments made in the country’s industry.
  • Development of large-scale extraction projects of non-metalliferous ores, such as lithium or potassium – also intended for the global market.

To sum up, mining in Argentina has experienced remarkable growth over the last two decades, due to the exploration and exploitation investments made mainly by large foreign companies; thus, representing a qualitative and quantitative leap of the country’s mining industry activity.
Due to this intense exploration activity, today Argentina is world-known for its large production of gold, silver and copper. At the same time, the country owns a vast amount of lithium, uranium and potash resources.
The current area with mining reserves is approximately 750,000 km2. However, a 75% of the country’s prospective areas remain unexplored and unexploited. It could be stated that mining activity in Argentina is still in an incipient stage, hence implying that there are still available important investment opportunities in existing and new mining projects.