Speaking at two Washington forums during IMF and World Bank meetings last week, José Luis Manzano, the chairman of Integra Capital, an Argentine private energy and mining investment group, delivered a consistent argument to institutional audiences on both sides of the critical minerals supply chain: Latin America holds the upstream geology the global energy transition requires, but the value chain breaks down at processing — and closing that gap is where the strategic opportunity lies.
The weight of his argument rests on his operating position, not on policy analysis. Manzano's portfolio spans oil and gas exploration and production through Phoenix Global Resources; natural gas distribution to more than 10 million users in Buenos Aires province through MetroGas, in partnership with Mercuria Energy Trading, an international commodity trading firm; lithium and uranium assets in Jujuy, Catamarca, and Chubut provinces; a zinc and copper operation in Peru; and the Río Colorado potassium project in Mendoza province, where Integra Capital is advancing a pilot plant. Bloomberg captured the position in a 2024 headline: "Energy Mogul Makes 100-Year Bet on Argentina's Mineral Wealth."
The Bottleneck Is Processing, Not Money
At the Semafor World Economy Forum — an annual conference held in Washington alongside IMF and World Bank meetings — Manzano shared a panel with Barbara Humpton, CEO of USA Rare Earth, moderated by Steve Clemons, Semafor's editor.
He argued that the critical minerals designation is fundamentally about supply access, not about price: if the issue were only cost, the category would simply be called "expensive minerals."
Latin America's geological role is clear — the region holds the world's largest known lithium resources and significant undeveloped rare earth deposits — but that abundance does not translate into exportable value unless the mineral is processed in-country.
According to Inter-American Development Bank President Ilan Goldfajn, speaking in December 2025, Argentina and other Latin American countries are exporting significant shares of raw mineral production to China for processing, then importing the refined products at substantially higher prices — a dynamic Manzano argued is the defining constraint on regional value creation.
He identified three forces shaping demand and making the processing gap more acute: global electrification, the expansion of artificial intelligence and the data infrastructure it requires, and the strategic competition between the United States and China, which has transformed supply chain geography into a national security question. Latin America, he argued, can position itself as a reliable supplier to the Western Hemisphere and a region of stability in a period of growing global fragmentation.
Logistics as the Binding Constraint
At a parallel Atlantic Council panel during the same Washington week, Manzano turned from the general argument to his own holdings. Potasio Río Colorado in Malargüe, Mendoza — one of Argentina's largest undeveloped potassium deposits — is advancing toward pilot production. But the project faces the same constraint as every Andean mining asset: logistics. Without rail to move ore off the mountain, without high-voltage transmission in the Andes, and without export-capable ports, industrial-scale production is not viable regardless of what is in the ground. Logistics, he said, is what keeps him awake at night.
His call to U.S. capital was specific. The combination of Argentina's Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI) — which provides 30-year fiscal stability — and the U.S. government's Project Vault, a strategic critical minerals reserve designed to reduce American dependence on Chinese supply chains, creates architecture where both financing and demand are simultaneously available. He argued that U.S. capital has a large and profitable opportunity there.
His assessment of domestic Argentine private capital was sharper: local business has the opportunity to enter the processing and intermediate industrialization segment — the highest-value role in the chain — but lacks both mining sector knowledge and the risk appetite the sector requires.
The Demand-Side Response
While Manzano articulated the supply-side problem, Barbara Humpton, who left Siemens USA in October 2025 to become CEO of USA Rare Earth, was at the same forum with a concrete acquisition agenda. According to a Semafor report published April 13, USA Rare Earth is pursuing acquisitions across the full rare earth value chain, from mining to magnet manufacturing.
Humpton cited a recent stake in Carester, a French rare earth processing company, as a model for building European processing capacity that can serve both European and Asian markets. Her argument: the supply chain is fragile because it depends on China functioning at every stage, from extraction to finished magnet, and the task now is to remove that vulnerability.
On the role of U.S. government equity participation in critical minerals producers, she argued that Washington's involvement is not interference — it is a market signal that de-risks private co-investment. Developing the critical minerals supply chain to the scale the energy transition and AI infrastructure buildout will require, Manzano concluded, will take trillions of dollars and decades.