Milei Wants to Turn Argentina Into a Mining Powerhouse

Some of the world’s biggest deposits of copper—needed for everything from air conditioners to electric vehicles—sit untapped underneath Argentina, a country that mining companies considered off limits because of its red tape and economic turmoil.

That’s about to change fast.

Boosted by a win in last month’s pivotal congressional midterm elections, Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei is now trying to turn a land best known for Malbec and steak into a powerhouse in the world’s booming copper industry.

After earning praise from President Trump and Elon Musk by slashing the size of his government, the Argentine president is betting that mining will help diversify his country’s largely agriculture-based economy, create thousands of new jobs and generate much-needed dollar revenue. Milei often compares his country’s copper potential to neighboring Chile, the world’s biggest producer of the metal.

“Argentina doesn’t export even a single gram of copper while Chile, which shares the same mountain range with us, exports $20 billion a year,” Milei said Thursday at a business forum in Miami. He also met with miners and other foreign investors in New York on Friday.

“We’re going to have dollars coming out of our ears.”

Since coming to power two years ago, the Argentine president has rewritten investment rules to attract mining companies and capitalize on a surge in demand for copper, a sought-after component in electric vehicles and other equipment using sustainable technologies. Now, Milei needs to attract private investments to kick-start the economy after implementing deep public spending cuts by slashing subsidies and closing ministries. The tough austerity brought down triple-digit inflation but increased unemployment as factories closed.

Glencore, BHP Group and First Quantum are among those developing eight projects requiring some $26 billion in new investments, said Nicolás Muñoz, a mining expert at consulting firm CRU Group. Four of the world’s 12 biggest greenfield copper projects—mines being built from scratch—are located in Argentina, according to consulting firm Benchmark Minerals.

These projects are slated to produce over a million tons of copper a year by 2035, turning Argentina into a top-five global producer and one of the world’s fastest-growing sources of new supply. The first is scheduled to start production in about three years, which the Argentine government hopes will mark the beginning of a long-held dream of one day rivaling Chile’s copper production.

“Argentina has some of the greatest untapped potential,” said Carlos Ramirez, a BHP executive in Argentina. “The geology doesn’t just stop at the border.”

Alongside oil and gas, mining is one of the few sources of foreign investments that Milei’s government has so far been able to attract.

His administration sees copper as a way to diversify Argentine exports, which are dependent on soybeans, beef and wine. It could also help address a scarcity of dollars, a major economic challenge that has for decades fueled catastrophic runs on the country’s currency, the peso.

The most recent hit to the Argentine currency before October’s midterm congressional elections risked derailing not only Milei’s free-market overhaul, but also the country’s copper rush. The ruling party’s stronger-than-expected showing has boosted Milei’s political capital and rekindled investor hopes that Milei will be able to build coalitions to advance labor and tax changes.

“The winds are now favorable for the development of these large investments,” said Carolina Sánchez, a former mining secretary.

If it works, it would be a significant change in the country’s direction.

Mining companies in Argentina have long sat on projects. They refused to invest in a country mired in economic turmoil and reams of business restrictions that made it difficult to import equipment and send dollars out of the country.

Milei tried to break the impasse by creating incentives to attract investments through a program called RIGI. Under the program, he has loosened foreign-exchange controls for companies and provides tax stability for 30 years while reducing the corporate tax rate. It offers legal benefits, including the ability to arbitrate disputes abroad at independent tribunals.

“It’s indispensable,” said Michael Meding, general manager of McEwan Copper, which plans to start construction next year on a $3.2 billion copper deposit that was discovered nearly 30 years ago. “There needs to be special incentives to recover the confidence that was lost in Argentina.”

Meding had an hour-long meeting last year with Milei at the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace. He said the Argentine leader outlined how mining could be a new economic engine.

“I see a clear strategy for the development of the mining sector in Argentina,” said Meding.

To be sure, copper alone won’t solve Argentina’s deep economic problems, economists say. And it’s unlikely to ever replace the labor-intensive factories in Buenos Aires and other cities that have been battered by Milei’s austerity.

“It would be really helpful to accumulate hard currency, which is not a minor advantage for Argentina,” said Benjamin Gedan, an Argentina expert and director of the Stimson Center’s Latin America program. “But it will never drive enough employment and linkages in the economy to be transformative.”

Building new mines in Argentina faces challenges. Mining companies lack roads, electricity and rail lines to transport the copper out of the remote Andes. Argentina lacks experienced mine workers compared with Chile and Peru, another copper powerhouse. Financing multibillion-dollar projects remains costly because of Argentina’s high country risk.

A law that bans mining at or near Argentina’s approximately 16,000 glaciers could still derail many projects. But the government should be able to change the law after Milei’s party more than doubled its seats in Congress, said Carlos Saravia Frías, a lawyer in Buenos Aires who specializes in mining.

“This definitely needs to be resolved,” he said. “It’s a precondition for all the copper projects.”

And while provincial governments back mining, not all communities do.  Saul Zeballos recalls when cyanide and mercury from a gold mine owned by Canada’s Barrick Gold spilled into a river in 2015 near his town of Jachal. Today, Zeballos worries new copper mines will suck up water used by the town and farmers.

“We’ve been ignored,” said Zeballos, an accountant and member of a local group called “Don’t Touch Jachal” that opposes mining. “We’re going to be left without anything.”

Other Argentines support building a new mining industry, including some winemakers who once opposed mining because of concerns about its impact on their water.

The governor of Mendoza province, the center of Argentina’s wine industry, says he wants the country’s flagship Malbec wine to coexist with copper.

“We’ll produce copper, we’ll make the best wine and we’ll take care of our water,” Gov. Alfredo Cornejo said while holding up a slab of turquoise-colored rock rich in copper. “This product can make Mendoza prosperous.”