Argentina’s copper dreams need infrastructure – but who will build it?

By Lucila Sigal – Reuters

Argentina holds rich copper deposits in the mountainous north along the Chilean border, but, unlike its mining powerhouse neighbor, has not built power lines and roads needed for new projects backed by miners such as BHP and Rio Tinto.

The copper projects are concentrated in the northern province of San Juan, which some call the “Vaca Muerta of copper,” an allusion to Argentina’s shale oil and gas field the size of Belgium.

San Juan enacted a compensation program in 2022 that could help get infrastructure built. It allows mining companies that develop road or energy infrastructure to be repaid with mining royalties if provincial legislators deem the project a “public utility.” Miners normally pay royalties to governments.