Copper in Catamarca
Argentina formalized the entry of Glencore's Agua Rica copper project into its Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI), with a declared total investment of $6.39 billion. The approval, set out in Resolution 1854/2026 of the Ministry of Economy, covers investment over the life of the mine in Catamarca province.
The resolution completes the process cleared by the Evaluation Committee, whose approval President Javier Milei and Glencore CEO Gary Nagle announced in Paris in early October, with an estimated capital investment of $4 billion. The official text sets September 30, 2026 as the date of adhesion and of acquisition of rights under the regime.
The project integrates the Agua Rica deposit with the processing plant at Alumbrera, 35 km away, the Catamarca copper mine whose 2018 closure left Argentina without copper production, in the scheme the company calls MARA (Minera Agua Rica-Alumbrera). According to the Ministry of Economy, it will generate 8,200 direct and indirect jobs across construction and operation. The resolution sets the start of construction for November 1, 2027 and the start of operations for October 1, 2031.
With Agua Rica, the regime adds another large-scale copper project to a portfolio that already included Vicuña, in San Juan province, Los Azules and PSJ Cobre Mendocino, the project with which Mendoza province joined the copper map. Among the mining projects listed on the RIGI's official dashboard, only Vicuña declares a larger investment, at $9.74 billion.
Resolution Records $3.31 Billion in Qualifying Assets
The figure announced in Paris was Glencore's estimated capital investment. The resolution, by contrast, records two amounts declared by the company: a total investment of $6.39 billion and an investment in qualifying (computable) assets of $3.31 billion.
The commitment for the first two years, counted from notification, totals $771.5 million: $111.6 million in the first year and $659.9 million in the second. That amount exceeds the 40% of the minimum investment required by Articles 172 and 173 of Law 27,742, the Bases Law that created the RIGI. The deadline to complete the minimum in qualifying assets is December 31, 2028. According to the text, financing is entirely at the company's own account and risk.
The documentation describes a mine plan of 780 million tonnes (Mt) of ore at an altitude of about 3,300 meters. Grades are 0.53% copper, 0.22 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold and 3.51 g/t of silver. Average output would be around 160,000 tonnes of copper a year in concentrate, with associated gold, silver and molybdenum, over a 23-year life of mine.
Cumulatively, from 2031, the company projects producing 3.46 Mt of copper, 2.34 million ounces of gold, 41.2 million ounces of silver and 99,854 tonnes of molybdenum. Planned exports total 10.8 Mt of copper, gold and silver concentrate and 239,455 tonnes of molybdenum concentrate.
Alumbrera Restart Lowers Start-Up Risk
Glencore reports measured and indicated (M&I) resources at Agua Rica of about 1.2 billion tonnes grading 0.47% copper. According to the company, the restart of Alumbrera, brought forward to the second half of 2027, reduces start-up risk for the plant and for logistics ahead of the arrival of Agua Rica ore. That is the role the company assigned to Alumbrera in its investment plan for Argentina.
The supplier development plan submitted by the company allocates 54% to local suppliers of the amount earmarked for suppliers, goods and infrastructure works across all project stages. RIGI regulations set a 20% minimum.
Within Catamarca, Agua Rica comfortably outstrips the province's other projects listed on the regime's official dashboard:
- Hombre Muerto Oeste, by Galan, at $292 million.
- Minera del Altiplano's Phase 1B Expansion, at $531 million.
- The lithium project of China's Zijin Mining through Liex, at $709 million.
Compliance oversight will fall to the Secretariat of Mining. In the company's October 2 statement, Glencore Argentina CEO Martín Pérez de Solay said the RIGI provides "the fiscal and regulatory certainty needed to commit capital of this scale."