YPF will start next month on lithium exploration process in an area of 20,000 hectares located in Fiambalá, province of Catamarca, in what will be the first project of this type led by a national company.
This was announced by the president of the boards of directors of Y-TEC (YPF Tecnología) and YPF Litio, Roberto Salvarezza, who explained that the company “It has seen a concrete participation in obtaining lithium and has already obtained a first salt flat in the province of Catamarca that we call Fiambalá Norte”.
“Next month we are going to explore its lithium levels to see if they are suitable for exploitation”Salvarezza announced to FM La Patriada.
The project in Fiambalá, The result of a partnership agreed in August between YPF and Catamarca Minera y Energética, it includes all stages from resource evaluation to exploration.
for both firms It is the first development of this type that they will carry out.
? “Three Quebradas” Project ?
It is a mining plant that will produce 20 tons of lithium carbonate per year and will generate more than a thousand jobs, with an investment of US$ 380 million, in Fiambalá, Catamarca.
? More clean and quality energy for our country. pic.twitter.com/xowv9afda0
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In the exploration stage, it will be sought to identify the potential and content of lithium with shallow wells to determine the richest areas, and later, deeper wells will be carried out and the construction of pools among other storage and processing structures.
Finally, based on the results obtained, it will be possible to advance in the development of the area on a commercial scale.
Other projects
“There are another twenty projects under development in our country, practically all of them foreigners. Now for the first time we have the possibility that a national company has a presence in obtaining the resource,” said Salvarezza about the milestone that Fiambalá will represent.
In addition to the project in Fiambalá, the firm is working, through Y-TEC, on a project to manufacture lithium batteries, in agreement with the National University of La Plata.
According to Y-TEC’s plans, it is expected to start the production of cells in the country from next December at the plant owned by the firm in the Berisso district of Buenos Aires, thus completing the entire value chain from the salt flat to the batteries. .
Cells are the main component of batteries used to store electrical energy in a wide variety of industries.
“Today it is not a resource that we are fully exploiting here and YPF is a concrete possibility. He has already shown his decision to be a player in the world of litho and has all his back and history in terms of the ability to explore, exploit and transform into added value, ”said the former Minister of Science and Technology.
The executive also referred to the recent discovery of the mineral in Formosa which was announced last week by the governor of that province, Gildo Insfrán.
Salvarezza indicated that lithium, found in deep saline waters recovered from the production processes of the oil fields in western Formosa, is at “interesting levels.”
For the development of this resource and its research, Y-TEC signed a Memorandum of Understanding a month ago with the company Recursos y Energía Formosa (Refsa) to develop a work proposal for its extraction.
Now Y-TEC will have the samples sent by Formosa to give continuity and depth to the studies, and is interested in the province having the technology to produce lithium cells.
Within this framework, Salvarezza highlighted the “potential” that the country possesses with respect to this resource, used not only to store energy but also for electromobility.
“Argentina has the world’s second largest lithium reserves and is the fourth largest exporter of lithium carbonate in the world (behind Australia, Chile and China), so we have enormous potential that is also associated with the reserves that Bolivia possesses -the in the world – and Chile”, emphasized the president of Y-TEC.
Finally, consulted on the legislation in the country that regulates its extractionSalvarezza considered that there are “different strategies” such as its nationalization or its declaration as a “strategic resource”.
“It is a topic of debate that requires consensus because the provinces by the Constitution have the resource, and that should have the legislative sphere as a stage,” Salvarezza concluded.
Argentina, one of the three countries along with Bolivia and Chile that are part of the so-called “lithium triangle”is the country with the most projects in progress, according to a survey by the foreign trade consultant B&B, in an international context where its production has tripled between 2015 and 2021.
According to estimates made last June, the Ministry of Mining projects that the country could increase its production sixfold in the next five years, going from the current 37,500 tons of lithium carbonate to more than 200,000.
