1c Today Hidden Gem Uncovered, page-50

LRS....right place, right time...timing is everything

https://www.economist.com/news/amer...-much-worlds-lithium-they-take-very-different

It has been decades since anyone thought of Argentina as business-friendly. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, a populist who governed until December 2015, made things harder. Currency controls to prop up the peso stopped foreign companies from repatriating dividends. Export taxes reduced profits and import controls made it hard to bring in machinery. Investors had to apply to the tax authority for permission to import, and then to the central bank for hard currency, which dwindled as Ms Fernández’s administration wore on. “It would usually take months to get drilling equipment and pumps into the country,” says David Sidoo, chief executive of Advantage Lithium, a Canadian firm.
Under the constitution, provinces, not the federal government, own the country’s minerals. Mining firms had to find their way through a confusion of provincial rules and regulations. “It was like the Tower of Babel,” says Daniel Meilán, the country’s current mining secretary. Investors found it difficult to work out which companies had already been awarded concessions, while provincial governments often muscled their way into projects. JEMSE, a mining firm owned by the province of Jujuy, demanded an equity stake of 20% in Sales de Jujuy before settling for 8.5%, financed with a loan from the company.
Argentina’s newish president, Mauricio Macri, has tried to unblock investment, including that in lithium. In his first week in office the former businessman eased currency controls and started to scrap export taxes. His entrepreneurial zeal has influenced provincial governments, which are approving permits for exploration and extraction much more quickly. “It’s much faster to get equipment into the country now,” says Mr Sidoo. Jujuy’s government has created a database to make it easier for investors to figure out who holds mining concessions.

https://www.reuters.com/article/arg...e-in-south-america-lithium-race-idUSL8N1NJ6XJ

Argentina is the world’s third-largest producer, with some 30,000 tonnes per year, but that is less than half of Chile’s annual output of 70,000 tonnes. Australia, the world’s largest lithium miner, produces 76,000 tonnes, data from the governments show.

“There is a real potential that Argentina will leapfrog over Chile in terms of production in five years’ time,” Richard Seville, chief executive of Brisbane-based Orocobre, said during a visit to the mine. “It is going to be a very important player.”

Yet with Macri’s two-year-old government making lithium a priority, Orocobre and other miners are bypassing Chile and heading for Argentina.

Argentina’s energy ministry expects lithium exports to increase to $800 million in the coming years from $191 million in 2016.