Two parliamentary discussions and the response of Argentine society in the remaining three weeks of 2025 will be crucial the future of mining in the next decades. Only copper, a strategic mineral for the world’s energy transition and military weapons, promises it Investments of $35,000 million in the coming years.
Mendoza delivered the first good news to the sector with a “historic turnaround” while the National Congress must debate in extraordinary sessions before December 30 Adaptation to the glacier law.
The Legislature of Mendoza just gave approval this Tuesday San Jorge Project Environmental Impact Statement (DIA). And has institutionally reversed its recent history as an anti-mining province. Now Governor Alfredo Cornejo must pass the law and a period of about a year begins in which the mine works on the feasibility of its initiative.
San Jorge, which belongs to the Swiss Zonda Metals GmBH, and the Argentine Alberdi Group, which belongs to the businessman Martin Rapallini -President of the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA) – envisages initial investments of $559 million to produce about 40,000 tons of fine copper per year from 2028.
The project that is generated 3,900 jobs is located 37 kilometers from Uspallata and 97 kilometers from the city of Mendoza.
Mendoza has taken a historic step. Today, coherence has won, logic has won and the decision to prepare for the world to come has won.
With the approval of PSJ Cobre Mendocino’s Environmental Impact Statement, we open the door to the production of copper, a fundamental mineral… pic.twitter.com/7kuEKOqimE
— Alfredo Cornejo (@alfredocornejo) December 9, 2025
If the feasibility delivers good results and it is verified that the detailed engineering, the execution plan, the cost and financing analysis complete technically and economically, Construction will begin in 2027 and will take between 18 and 24 months.
Meanwhile, the government has placed “Adjustment of the minimum budget for the conservation of glaciers and the periglacial environment” on the agenda of the extraordinary meetings.
The solution found by La Libertad Avanza (LLA) appeals to mining companies waiting to make multi-million dollar investments in Argentina will give the provinces -Owners of natural resources according to the national constitution- the key to defining the water to be protected in their territories.
This creates incentives for each governor to regulate the Glacier Act and attract investment in even a semi-provincial jurisdiction. In this way, possible legal conflicts are avoided by not affecting the law in force since 2010.
The largest multinational mining companies are behind this adjustment of the Glacier Act. The most symbolic project is that of Vicuna Corp., consisting of the Australian BHP and the Canadian Lundin Mining, which could announce investments in 2026 for approx 15 billion dollars for the development of Josemaría and Filo del Sol, in the heart of the Andes, above San Juan.
Vicuña is preparing an integrated technical report on both copper deposits and could apply to join the Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI) in the first months of next year.
Glencore has already filed to acquire two copper mines in Catamarca for $13.5 billion and McEwen Copper’s Los Azules – where Rio Tinto has a stake – in San Juan for $2.7 billion. The other proposal that will shape the sector’s agenda in the future is that of First Quantum, which promises investments of $3.6 billion to mine the mineral in Salta.
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