Milley is betting on transforming Argentina into a major mining power

Vast reserves of copper, which supports industries from air conditioners to electric cars, lie untapped in Argentina, a country considered off-limits by mining companies due to bureaucratic red tape and economic turmoil, but that is about to change quickly.

Buoyed by his victory in the midterm congressional elections last month, Argentine President Javier Melei is now trying to transform the Latin country into a force in the world’s booming copper industry.

Having won praise from US President Donald Trump by reducing the size of his government and eliminating some ministries, Milley is betting that mining will help significantly diversify Argentina’s agricultural-based economy, creating thousands of new jobs, as well as generating much-needed dollar revenues.

Milley often compares his country’s potential in the field of copper to neighboring Chile, which is the largest producer of this metal in the world.

“Argentina does not export even a single gram of copper, while Chile, which shares the same mountain range with us, exports quantities worth $20 billion annually,” Milley said last week, during a business forum in Miami.

Milley recently met with miners and other foreign investors in New York. “We will get more dollars than we need,” he joked.

Investment rules

Since coming to power two years ago, the Argentine president has reshaped investment rules to attract mining companies and capitalize on growing demand for copper, an ingredient needed in electric cars and other equipment that uses sustainable technologies.

Now Milley needs to attract private investment to revive the economy after implementing deep cuts in public spending by cutting subsidies and closing ministries.

Strict austerity measures have reduced inflation, which has reached record levels, but have increased unemployment as factories closed.

In this context, Nicholas Muñoz, a mining expert at the consulting firm CRU Group, said that Glencore, BHP Group, and First Quantum are among the mining companies working to develop eight projects that require new investments amounting to about $26 billion.

Four of the world’s 12 largest greenfield copper projects – mines built from scratch – are in Argentina, according to consulting firm Benchmark Minerals.

These projects are scheduled to produce more than one million tons of copper annually by 2035, making Argentina among the five largest global producers and one of the fastest growing sources of new supplies in the world.

Production in the first of these projects is scheduled to begin within approximately three years, and the Argentine government hopes that this will be the beginning of the realization of a long-awaited dream that Argentina will one day compete with Chile’s copper production, as the neighboring country produced more than five million tons last year.

Export diversification

“Argentina has some of the greatest untapped potential,” said Carlos Ramirez, a BHP Group executive in Argentina.

Along with oil and gas, mining is one of the few sources of foreign investment that Milley’s government has been able to attract so far.

His administration sees copper as a way to diversify Argentina’s exports, which rely on soybeans and beef, and could also help address dollar scarcity, a major economic challenge that over decades has led to a catastrophic collapse of the country’s currency, the peso.

The latest blow to the Argentine currency before the midterm congressional elections last October threatens to derail not only Milley’s free-market reforms, but also the country’s copper investments.

The ruling party’s stronger-than-expected performance in recent elections has boosted the Argentine president’s political capital and revived investors’ hopes that Milley can build coalitions to push changes on labor and taxes. About “The Wall Street Journal”

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Big change

Former Argentine Mining Minister Carolina Sanchez said, “The winds are now favorable for the development of large mining investments, and if this succeeds, it will be a major change in the direction of the country.”

Mining companies in Argentina have long stopped implementing their projects, refusing to invest in a country mired in economic turmoil and numerous trade restrictions that have made it difficult to import equipment and send dollars out of the country.

. With mining, Millie aims to diversify Argentina’s agricultural-based economy and create thousands of new jobs.

. Mining companies are developing 8 projects in Argentina that require investments of $26 billion.