New jobs: a Korean company will invest 830 million dollars in the country

The chief of staff, Juan Manzur, received the president of the South Korean steel company Posco Argentina, KwangBok Kim, and the director of the company, SungKook Chung, who announced an investment in its plant in Argentina for 830 million dollars .

"We made the decision to carry out our project starting the construction of our commercial plant in March of this year with a direct investment of about 830 million dollars," said the head of Posco Argentina, KwangBok Kim in statements to the media accredited at Casa Rosada.

Manzur, for his part, stated on his Twitter account: "Today I received the president of Posco Argentina, KwangBok Kim, and its director, SungKook Chung. This company is carrying out a comprehensive lithium extraction project in the Salar del Hombre Dead -between Salta and Catamarca– which is in an advanced exploration stage".

The Chief of Staff pointed out that "we are analyzing different ways of state support so that this venture can continue to grow and generate new jobs, under the environmental standards of our country. We continue to strengthen the economic recovery."

Meanwhile, the head of the Korean steel company said that Manzur "promised to give all the necessary support for our project to be successful in Argentina."

"Starting in March we will begin the first stage of construction of the commercial plant that will significantly generate labor and resources for Argentina," said the Korean businessman.

Posco's "integral lithium project" is called Sal de Oro and is located in the Salar del Hombre Muerto, on the border between the provinces of Salta and Catamarca.

The map of projects expands with more provinces

Officialized in November, the decision of the French group Eramet to move forward with the development of a plant for the processing of the mineral once again highlights the obsession of foreign companies to control domestic lithium. Under a promise of investment of 400 million dollars, the French metallurgical and mining company seeks to strengthen its position in Salta, a province in which early last year it halted the progress of its Centenario-Ratones project.

Aware of the advance of rival companies in Argentina and the region, the Eramet leadership moved the pieces with a view to not losing ground in the race to supply first world automakers with lithium. The company in question maintains supply agreements with the also gala Bolloré, a firm that promotes electric vehicles.

For the development of the plant, it will strengthen ties with Tsingsha, a Chinese company -with weight in the global extraction of nickel- that will contribute more than 80 percent of the capital for this venture.

The Asian power, through another of its commercial ambassadors, continues to increase its presence in the exploitation or processing of metal. Construction of the plant will begin in the first quarter of 2022 and it is expected to start operating in 2024.

At the same time as this announcement by Eramet, this week there were also actions that expose an expansion of the extractivist map around lithium. Thus, and as iProfessional was able to learn from sources linked to GEMERA, the chamber that integrates the mining companies that carry out exploration at the local level, the provinces of La Rioja and San Juan granted permits to search for the mineral in their respective territories.

In this way, both jurisdictions are one step away from breaking the hegemony of Salta, Jujuy and Catamarca in terms of local axes of lithium exploitation. One particular detail is that both San Juan and La Rioja gave the guarantees to the same company: the Canadian Origen Resources, which intends to operate in Los Sapitos, an area of ​​salt flats shared by the two provinces.

The mining company will deploy its work on at least 47,000 hectares. "The tectonic setting of the belts, geothermal activity and observed brine chemistry are similar to those of the Lithium Triangle and give rise to the possibility of discovering structural traps for lithium-bearing aquifers at depth," the firm detailed. a statement.

"Ulexite has also been identified throughout the belt, indicating that concentrated brines containing boron have been present, an indicator of lithium prospectivity. The Origen Resources team expects to get to work in the coming weeks to begin work on this asset," he added. It was in mid-October that this company made official its plans to set foot in San Juan.

Another province seeking to position itself on the lithium map is La Pampa. During the first half of 2021, the administration headed by Sergio Ziliotto commissioned Pampetrol, the provincial oil company, to monitor the presence of the metal in the west of that territory.

In 2017, a report generated in that district showed signs of lithium in the La Amarga lagoon and the San Máximo salt mine, both spaces near the town of Puelches. La Pampa's decision is to reconfirm that first evaluation to later evaluate whether ore extraction can be economically profitable.

Automakers predominate

Aside from these movements, automakers continue to deepen their landing in provinces where the presence of lithium ore has been confirmed. With a focus on the Puna territories, the companies position themselves in partnership with mining subsidiaries, always from the perspective of ensuring the material for the expansion of the electric car business in the first world.

In keeping with this strategy, Tesla has just added another supplier with operations in Argentina after confirming that Liex, a local subsidiary of the Canadian company Neolithium, will advance with the construction of the Tres Quebradas (3Q) project in the province of Catamarca. The firm notified that it will begin the development of camps and roads between December and January.

As iProfesional learned, Neolithium will disburse 60 million dollars during the first year of operations in 3Q.

Tesla already has another company that will deliver lithium from Argentina: the Chinese Ganfeng Lithium Co., which promised in May that it would go ahead with the installation of a battery factory in Jujuy.

The company in question is a giant mineral processing company for the automotive industry. In December of last year, he "whitewashed" his decision to inject at least 100 million dollars to expand the Caucharí Olaroz venture – always in the province of Jujuy.

As iProfessional explained last February, the intention of the company, which under the figure of Exar shares a project with the Canadian Lithium Americas, is to enhance the deposit between the remainder of 2021 and 2022.

Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium has current contracts for the supply of lithium with "heavyweights" of automobile production such as the aforementioned Tesla, although it also maintains ties with Volkswagen and BMW for the permanent delivery of the mineral for the development of hybrid vehicles or directly electric.

Meanwhile, in the Puna continues the strong presence of Toyota, which already says it is present in the exploitation of the material through the Olaroz project in Jujuy.

The Asian company owns 25 percent of the project's shares, while the remaining portion is owned by Australia's Orocobre. Jujuy's state company JEMSE has a symbolic stake: 8.5 percent.

In the Fénix project, which is being developed in the Salar del Hombre Muerto, in the province of Catamarca, BMW says it is present in a shareholding alliance with the Livent mining company. In the first half of this year, the automaker anticipated an investment of more than 300 million to boost exploitation in Fénix.

Fenix ​​and Olaroz are, so far, the only two lithium projects in the concrete exploitation phase in Argentina.