Fernández received Daniel Chávez Díaz, CEO of Eramine Sudamérica SA, a local subsidiary of Eramet, in his office at the Casa Rosada, who confirmed the investment announced in the morning by the company in Paris.
Chavez Díaz attended together with the director of the company, Juan Archibaldo Lanús, while Fernández was accompanied by Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero; and the ministers of Economy, Martín Guzmán, and of Productive Development, Matías Kulfas, were officially informed.
President Fernández, during his visit to France in May 2021, had advanced with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in the proposals to generate the tools aimed at achieving a public-private synergy that would enable the reactivation of the project, the information indicates.
On Friday, the CEO of Eramine Sudamericana had held a meeting with the Secretary of Mining, Alberto Hensel, in which he reported the reactivation of investments for the project.
During the construction phase of the plant, which is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2022, it is estimated that up to 1,000 people will work on the site while, during the production phase, the project will generate 280 direct jobs and around 1,200 indirect.
Binational Society
The company Eramet will control the project, with a 50.1% stake, and will assume responsibility for operational management, while its partner Tsingshan will finance the construction of the plant and enter the project with up to 49.9%.
The authorities of the local subsidiary highlighted that “one of the factors that has greatly influenced the decision of the board of directors has been that we have noticed an improvement and a much more favorable environment for foreign investments in recent months, thanks to the decisions adopted by the National Government ”.
“We believe that Argentina has been transformed, for projects like ours, into an economic territory, into a very favorable regulatory institutional atmosphere for foreign investment. We had this stopped and we have reinitiated it by chance due to this new atmosphere ”, they highlighted before the journalists accredited in Casa Rosada.
The construction of the plant will include its associated infrastructure, including an electricity supply plant (mostly gas-fired, although a solar power plant will be built to “increase its power”), telecommunications, and transfer roads.
Located at 3,800 meters above sea level, the Centenario-Ratones deposit has reserves estimated for forty years, equivalent to 24,000 tons of lithium carbonate per year; and its dimensions will allow the plant to be expanded in the future.
Currently 75 people (40 employees of Eramine Sudamericana, a subsidiary of Eramet; and 35 subcontractors) work permanently on the site. They are expected to incorporate 700 jobs for the construction of the plant and 300 for its subsequent operation, mostly from nearby towns.
Source From: Ambito
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