The Minister of Energy and Mining, Juan José Aranguren , lead to Australia a trade mission accompanied by the Undersecretary of Sustainability Mining, Juan Biset and the Argentine Ambassador to Australia, Hugo Javier Gobbi.
During this trip, he held meetings with officials and companies to strengthen the bilateral relationship, and attract new investments in sectors related to mining, renewable energies and nuclear.
The Argentinean Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Auscham) reported that the mission coincided with the holding of the mining conference Latin America Down Under, in the city of Perth, of which Mr. Aranguren participated at the opening ceremony and integrated the round table on “The New Argentina: Open to Business”.
As part of his agenda with members of the federal government and the states of the country, Aranguren held meetings with Australian Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg, the Minister of Resources and Treasury of the State of Victoria, Tim Pallas, the foreign minister, Julie Bishop, and West Australian Minister of Mines and Petroleum, Bill Johnston, with whom he signed a Memorandum of Understanding.
The minister met with several large engineering companies, including Orocobre, Worley Parsons, Rincon Mining, Sentient Equity Partners, First Quantum, Woodside Energy, Latin Resources Limited, Rio Tinto, Fortescue Metals, Dark Horse, MMG, Resource Capital Found, SEA Energy and Resources, South 32 and Galaxy Resources.
From the Auscham it was highlighted that mining is the sector with more influence between both countries, with investments in gold, copper and now lithium, key to meet the demand of electric vehicle batteries.Argentina expects to produce more than 330,000 tons per year, being the fourth reserve worldwide, for which investments are projected in the country around USD 4 Billion. From the business chamber it was highlighted that the abundance of natural resources, combined with a favourable regulatory framework and the improvement of the country’s legal security, allowed the arrival of companies such as SQM, Lithium Americas, FMC, Enirgi, Orocobre, Albermarle and Eramet, those that are already engaged in advanced lithium exploration.
Another area of common interest is renewable energy and nuclear energy, describing Argentina as “a country with an abundance of natural potential as it has the direction, uniformity and wind speed, and 70% of the territory it exceeds the minimum efficiency standard of that resource, having the third largest reserve worldwide. ”
As an attraction for possible investments, it is presented that the northwest of the country is one of the four places on the planet with the greatest potential for generating solar energy, positioning the country as second in the world, while with 4700 kilometres of coastline, it offers excellent conditions for Wind and sea energy.
Regarding nuclear energy, Argentina was the first country in Latin America to build a plant, it has three functional ones -which produce 5% of the national energy- and plans to build two more.
In Australia, the 10th anniversary of the OPAL (Open Pool Australian Light Reactor) nuclear reactor, manufactured by the Argentine state company Invap and assembled in the vicinity of Sydney, was celebrated last year, and meant an important USD 200 Million export of high technology for medicinal and scientific research.
