The Ministry of Economy of Argentina granted the registration certificate to the mining company Eramine Sudamérica to the Investment Promotion Regime for Lithium Exports, which will allow it to continue with investments for 680 million dollars in the Centenario-Ratones project in Salta.
This regime, regulated by decrees 234 and 836 of 2021, allows companies that invest more than 100 million dollars to have the free availability of a fraction of the total amount of foreign currency entered into the country (20% if the investment is higher than the 100 million and less than 500 million dollars, 40% if it is up to 1,000 million dollars and 60% if it exceeds that figure), which enables them to cancel the debts they contract to finance the projects, while ensuring a surplus exchange balance for Argentina.
Eramine South America, a subsidiary of the French group Eramet (in partnership with China’s Tsingshan) aims to start exporting lithium from 2024, with foreign sales initially of 74 million dollars, an amount that will gradually grow until reaching 300 million dollars in 2026, reported the Government.
The Centenario-Ratones project has a life expectancy of more than 40 years and will be the first in the country whose production, of some 24,000 tons per year, is obtained 100% through a direct extraction method (without the need for evaporation in brine). In the last two years, investments in mining were announced for more than 11,000 million dollars, of which 5,141 million dollars correspond to bets by international and local companies on lithium.
Eramine’s entry into the regime is the second by a mining firm, after that of Liex, which will disburse some 371 million dollars for its Tres Quebradas lithium project in Fiambalá, Catamarca.
According to the Secretary of Mining, Fernanda Ávila, lithium will be able to contribute exports for some 5.6 billion dollars annually from 2025, between the two projects in production and another six under construction.
In this way, mining will become, along with agribusiness and energy, one of the key sectors for economic growth in the next administration.
Today Argentina is already the fourth largest lithium producer in the world. In the short term, it is expected that another five lithium projects, which are currently under construction, will enter production in the provinces of Jujuy, Salta and Catamarca. Cauchari Olaroz and Mariana, both from the Chinese firm Ganfeng Lithium; Gold Salt from South Korea’s POSCO; Sal de Vida from the Australian company Allkem Lda; and Tres Quebradas of China’s Zijin Mining Group.
