The Minister of Productive Development, Matías Kulfas, highlighted this Tuesday that “Argentine mining has been an important engine of economic recovery, with rising production and, above all, with new projects that are being launched” that will have an impact federal investment, employment and exports.
During the celebration of Mining Industry Day 2022 organized by the Argentine Chamber of Mining Entrepreneurs (CAEM), Kulfas stressed that the sector has much to contribute to the country, to local development and to the transition to clean energy, and assured: “We want to collectively build a mining industry that is future-oriented, that cares more and more for the environment.”
“The sector began 2022 with 34,000 direct formal jobs, the highest figure in the recent history of the mining sector. Counting indirect jobs, we are talking about more than 80,000 families that live from mining”, said the minister at the event held in Parque Norte in which more than 400 representatives of the sector’s value chain participated.
The minister added that “this dynamism also has clear impacts on federal development: 5 of the 10 localities in the country that had the highest growth in the last two years in terms of formal job creation are mining localities. provinces like Catamarca, San Juan and Santa Cruz, have created formal employment well above the national average in the last two years. It is impossible to understand that without mining.”
After his speech and in dialogue with the press, Kulfas referred to the proposals that the industry made at the event to support its activity, in particular those referring to the rretentions, access to the foreign exchange market, and availability for imported inputs.
“In retentions we are in a scenario where mining has to make a contribution like all activities, I think we are in a suitable scenario,” Kulfas considered, after which he added that “the fiscal pressure that exists in Argentina is similar to the from other countries with some differences, but we are on the right path and we are going to solve the problems with dialogue and joint work”.
We celebrate the Mining Day organized by @camaramineraarg ???. Thanks to him Minister, @KulfasM the Secretary @AvilaFernanda Ok ? and the director of @CEPXXI , @danyscht ? for being interested in suppliers. Mining must be done with National SMEs and the value chain. pic.twitter.com/TJYHPg69jE
— CAPMIN- Argentine Chamber of Mining Suppliers (@CapminOficial) May 10, 2022
Present at the meeting were the president of CAEM, Franco Mignacco; the chamber’s executive director, Luciano Berenstein; the general secretary of the Argentine Mining Workers’ Association (AOMA), Héctor Laplace; the Secretary of Mining of the Nation, Fernanda Ávila; and the director of the Center for Production Studies (CEP XXI), Daniel Schteingart.
Mignaco was in charge of posing industry position: “In the mining industry, due to its large volumes of investment with a long recovery period, it is necessary to guarantee a context of clear rules.”
ç “This means mainly respect for the Mining Investment Law and guarantee of fiscal stability. We continue to propose that withholdings must be reviewed, tending to eliminate them, to put ourselves on a par with the rest of the mining countries with which we compete, which do not have this type of charge,” he added.
The holder of CAEM he also understood “essential access to the Single and Free Exchange Market, reviewing the VAT refund regimes and guaranteeing imports of the necessary inputs for production and for the construction of projects.”
“In Argentina we currently have 13 metal mining deposits in productionmore of 30 projects with identified resources Y more than 250 prospects. The start-up of the most advanced mining projects will boost federal socioeconomic development and would more than triple current annual exports, reaching around US$10 billion, if the conditions of the context hold,” Mignacco said.
For its part, Avila said “There is a belief that mining leaves only 3% of its profits in the country, when in reality it leaves 80%”.
“There is a very frank dialogue that we owe ourselves with society, understanding the fears and doubts and being able to talk frankly, openly with accurate information, is central to making mining the pillar of development that we all want and boosting the enormous potential ”, said the official.
