Mineral exports in December totaled US$322 million and accumulated a total of US$3,857 million throughout 2022, with an increase of 19% compared to 2021 and reaching the highest level since 2012.
The Ministry of Mining highlighted that as of the closing of the figures for the year, exports of mining products represented 5.7% of total Argentine exports in December and 4.4% in the accumulated of 2022.
This is equivalent to a year-on-year fall in values of 24% for the month of December and a year-on-year increase of 19% for the entire year.
Also, the amount exported in 2022 for US$ 3,857 million is 3% above the average level of 2010-2021.
In this way, mining exports reached the highest level since 2012, when they had accounted for US$ 4,981 million.
In the accumulated of 2022, metalliferous minerals added exports for US$ 3,020 million.
This implies an interannual increase of 4%, where gold contributed US$ 2,159 million (56% of the total exported), silver US$ 802 million (21% of the total exported) and the rest of the metalliferous minerals US$ 59 million (2% of the total exported).
This allowed the metal industry to represent 78% of total mining exports.
This way, in the 12 months of 2022 gold shows an interannual growth of 8%, in the amounts exported, while silver fell 4% interannual.
In the case of lithium, in the 12 months of 2022 mineral sales abroad reached US$ 696 million, growing 234% year-on-year and representing 18% of total mining exports.
This export data in historical terms represents the number one position for the 12 months of a year, being 153% above the accumulated figure of 2018, considered the second historical year with the highest amounts exported.
Regarding the quantities of lithium exported, in the accumulated so far this year they exhibited an increase of 5.2%.
To graph the trend of the year, a total of US$74 million of lithium was exported in December, which implied a year-on-year growth in the amounts of 220%, marking the historical record of exports for the month.
In said month, lithium, according to the most exported minerals, held the number two position, maintaining its position compared to the previous month.
so, eLithium accounted for 23% of total mining exports also in the month under analysis.
This year-on-year increase in exported value was explained by a rise in export prices and also by an increase in shipped volumes.
In the accumulated of 2022, the rest of the mining products reached US$ 141 million, marking a year-on-year growth of 10%.
Switzerland, the United States, China and Canada accounted for 74% (US$239 million) of the destinations for total mining exports in December, while in the accumulated figure for the year this percentage reached 66% (US$2,556 million) for the selected countries.
Mining exports to these 4 countries were mainly explained by metalliferous minerals, which represented, for this group, 80% of total mining sales abroad in December and 86% in the year.
In turn, these 4 destinations accounted for 73% of total metal exports in the 12 months of 2022.
The remaining 27% of exports in this category were mainly destined for India, South Korea, Belgium, Germany and Japan.
As for lithium, as in metal ores, exports are concentrated in a small number of destinations: China, Japan, South Korea and Germany represented 93% of lithium exports in December.
Meanwhile, in the accumulated of the 12 months of 2022 the percentage was 94%, being made up of China, Japan, South Korea and the United States.
