News
17/11/25
Policy change in Argentina may boost Copper mining
Sao Paulo, 17 November (Argus) — Argentina's President Javier Milei is
considering a policy change that would revise the country's glacier protection
law, potentially facilitating expanded copper mining in areas currently
restricted under existing regulations. Milei plans to request congress make a
fundamental review of Argentina's glacier protection legislation known as
Glaciers Law, he said at a market event that was broadcasted online on 14
November. The law, among other restrictions, forbids mineral exploration and
extraction within the glaciers' perimeter, which is currently set by the
Argentinian institute of nivology, glaciology and environmental sciences
(IANIGLA) based on unclear criteria, Milei said. The IANIGLA's legal text
currently states that a glacier is "any stable or slowly flowing perennial ice
mass, regardless of shape, size, or conservation state, including rocky debris
and internal or surface water courses," adding that its perimeters are frozen or
ice-saturated soils that help regulate water resources. "The glacial perimeters
are not well defined," Milei said, "and because they are not well-defined, the
environmentalists rather [Argentina] to starve than to come close to the
glaciers." The president wants to transfer the authority to set perimeter
boundaries to the provincial governments, claiming that the glaciers' areas are
too large, which blocks — in Milei's words — Argentina's "God-given" resources
and curtails the country's mining prowess. "It seems to me that it would be
better for each province to determine which areas are considered glacier zones,"
Milei said. "We could finally start taking advantage of the natural resources
that have been made available to us." By giving provincial governments the
authority to define glacier perimeters, it could become easier to identify which
areas are truly off-limits, providing greater legal certainty for foreign
companies considering investment in Argentinian mining. Provinces could also
effectively reduce the size of protected glacier areas, expanding the land
available for extraction. Several copper resources located near the Andes and
its glaciers could be unlocked by the change, increasing Argentina's timid
copper output. Despite having 116mn metric tonnes of copper resources, it was
only able to export $4bn of the metal last year — while Chile, which is located
on the other side of the Andes, sold $50bn, according to Milei. It is unclear
how much copper is under glacial perimeters, but major copper projects in the
San Juan province — BHP/Lundin's Vicuña and Glencore's El Pachón — are located
near glaciers and could be benefited by major resource increases if the policy
is changed. The law change, combined with the country's federal investment
incentive program (RIGI) — which offers tax breaks and 40-year legal stability
for large-scale projects such as new mines — could attract more foreign
investment and lead the way for new mining developments in Argentina. Rio Tinto
only bought its way into Argentina because of the country's newly-established
legal stability guarantees, its former chief-executive Jacob Stausholm said .
Proposals to change the Glacier Law are not new and have always had staunch
backlash from environmental agencies, such as Greenpeace, which said this would
be opening a path to destroy most of Argentina's glacial environment, putting
the country's water security at risk. The glacier's meltwater regulates rivers
all across the country and serves as the primary feedstock for several
agricultural projects. "We will not allow them to touch the Glaciers Law. And we
will not support them issuing a sentence against the Argentinian glaciers,"
Greenpeace said. By Pedro Consoli Send comments and request more information at
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