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Argentina’s lithium pipeline promises “white gold” boom as Chile tightens control

Argentina's lithium pipeline promises "white gold" boom as Chile tightens control
Photo: Reuters

April 24 |

In Argentina’s mountainous north, a robust portfolio of lithium projects about to come online looks set to unlock a production wave that could triple its output of the key metal for electric vehicle batteries in the next two years.

The world’s fourth-largest producer of the silvery-white metal sits within the so-called “lithium triangle” and has been attracting investment from Canadian mining companies to ones from China with a regional and market-driven model, even as a wave of resource nationalism has swept through the region.

Neighboring Chile, the region’s top lithium producer, last week unveiled plans for a state-led public-private model, spooking investors. Bolivia has long maintained tight control over its huge but largely untapped resources, while Mexico nationalized its lithium deposits last year.

In Argentina, although state energy company YPF YPFD.BA began exploring for lithium last year, the sector has been driven largely by private enterprise and periodic approvals of new projects as the government has sought to attract more export dollars through mining, a rare bright spot amid the economic downturn.

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“Argentina has been granting concessions to projects for the last 10 years,” said Franco Mignacco, president of the Argentine Mining Business Chamber. “That’s why today we have this level of lithium investment and development and the possibility of growth.”

Mignacco estimated that Argentina’s current production of 40,000 tons of lithium carbonate could triple by 2024-2025 to 120,000 tons, which could take it beyond China and closer to Chile, which currently produces about 180,000 tons per year.

That would be driven by new projects coming online in addition to the two currently in production. The country has six lithium projects under construction and 15 in advanced exploration or feasibility stage, Mignacco said.

Argentina, Bolivia and Chile together sit on half of the world’s mineral resources beneath otherworldly salt flats in the high-altitude Andean plains.
But strategies for developing it diverge.

“Argentina’s lithium sector has thrived through a decentralized pro-market strategy,” said Benjamin Gedan, director of the Latin America program at The Wilson Center, adding that, in contrast, Bolivia’s lithium sector “has repeatedly stagnated as a result of excessive state control.”

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Chile, he said, may have found a “smart middle ground” with its public-private model, which would hand majority control of all new lithium projects to the state in a nationalist shift, but would still give private enterprise a key role.

The wave of resource nationalism has sparked some talk among officials of a possible OPEC-style lithium cartel in the region, although analysts see this as unrealistic given the industry’s diverse models and levels of development.

Meanwhile, Argentina faces challenges including economic turbulence with high inflation and capital controls complicating business, while the country heads into general elections in October, creating political uncertainty.

However, its lithium pipeline may keep the sector buzzing and even gain ground on rivals. Overtaking neighboring Chile would be highly unlikely, but some analysts were aiming high.

“Chile today produces and exports much more lithium than Argentina,” said Natacha Izquierdo, an analyst at consultancy ABCEB. “But if the projects we have here today come to fruition, Argentina could overtake us.”

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International

China shows at the UN its “condemnation” of Israel for the “violation of Iran’s sovereignty”

The Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, Fu Cong, showed the “condemnation” of his country against the “violation of the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Iran” after the air attack launched by Israel against multiple targets in that country, the official newspaper Diario del Pueblo reports this Saturday.

That media echoes Fu’s speech to the UN Security Council on Friday, in which he demanded that Israel “immediately stop all its military actions.”

“China (…) opposes the expansion of conflicts, and is deeply concerned about the serious consequences that may arise from Israel’s actions. The intensification of regional tensions does not interest any of the parties involved,” said the Chinese emissary.

Beijing called on Tel Aviv and Tehran to “resolve their disputes through political and diplomatic means, and maintain peace and stability at the regional level jointly.”

In Fu’s view, the Israeli attack will have a “negative impact” on the negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program: “China has always been committed to the peaceful resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue through dialogue and consultations, and opposes the use of force, illegal unilateral sanctions and armed attacks on peaceful nuclear facilities.”

This Friday, China had already expressed its willingness to “play a constructive role” to curb the escalation of tensions and facilitate conciliation, in line with its traditional position of active neutrality in the region’s conflicts.

The Israeli attack, which according to Tehran caused dozens of deaths, including senior military commanders and at least six nuclear scientists, targeted key facilities such as the uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. Numerous civilian casualties were also reported.

Israel justified the offensive by claiming that the Iranian regime is secretly developing a program to manufacture nuclear weapons.

For his part, Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, promised a “severe response” and assured that the attack would reveal the “evil nature” of Israel.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres also expressed concern about the bombing, at a time when Iran and the US The United States is holding talks about the Iranian nuclear program.

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International

Donald Trump’s government pauses its program of indiscriminate raides against migrants

The government of US President Donald Trump has decided to pause its campaign of discretionary roundings against migrants in certain areas due to its apparent concern about the growing unpopularity of these methods, according to The New York Times newspaper on Friday.

According to an email to which the newspaper has had access and the confirmation of US officials, the Executive has ordered the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) to pause the beatings that affect the agricultural industry and the hospitality industry.

The spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, confirmed in a statement that “the president’s instructions” will be obeyed and the portfolio will also continue to “work to get the worst illegal foreign criminals out of the streets of the United States.”

The decision points out that this campaign of discretionary arrests to try to deport large-scale immigrants is harming industries and electoral constituencies whose support Trump wants to retain for next year’s legislative elections.

The new instructions were transmitted to ICE in an email sent last Thursday asking that “all investigations/law enforcement operations be suspended in work centers in the agricultural sector (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and hotels.”

These new guidelines come in turn after more than a week of intense protests in Los Angeles against this immigration policy and that Trump himself admitted that the raids seem to be affecting the agricultural sector, which in states like California, where beatings have intensified, depend almost exclusively on immigrant labor.

Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has implemented an aggressive policy of hard hand against immigration and as a sample of his Cabinet officials recently held a meeting with the ICE leadership to order them to carry out 3,000 arrests a day, a mandate that seems to be behind the intensification of the raids.

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Trump says he knew “everything” about the attack on Iran and assures that the dialogue remains open

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington “known everything” about the Israeli attack on Iran and that the dialogue on Tehran’s nuclear program “is not dead.”

“We knew everything and I tried to avoid Iran all this humiliation and death. I tried hard to avoid it because I would have loved to see an agreement,” Trump said in an interview with Reuters.

The US president insisted on what he wrote today about the attack on social networks, where he said he gave an ultimatum of 60 days to Tehran to reach an agreement.

“We knew practically everything. We knew enough to give Iran 60 days to reach an agreement and today it is already 61 days,” he explained in the interview, in which he said he did not know what the current situation of the Iranian nuclear program is after the attack launched by Israel, which also ended the lives of key military leaders of the Persian country.

Regarding the dialogue between the US and Iran about the nuclear program of the ayatollahs, Trump assured that “he is not dead”, that “an agreement is still possible” and also recalled that on Sunday a sixth round of dialogue is scheduled in Muscat (Oman) that they consider is now in the air.

“We have a meeting with them on Sunday. Now, I’m not sure if that meeting will take place, but we have a meeting with them on Sunday,” he said.

The United States and Iran have held five rounds of talks on the Iranian nuclear program since April, with Washington demanding that Tehran discard its capabilities both to manufacture an atomic bomb and to enrich uranium, something that the ayatollahs considered unacceptable.

Both Israel and Trump himself had warned of possible preventive attacks on the Persian country due to this refusal by Iran.

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