Salta Province
Lithium triangle anchor: 6 projects approved, 28 exploring. Argentina lithium +62% in 2024. Mining potentially $30B sector by 2035. By 2026: testing if water constraints limit green energy extraction.
Salta Province anchors Argentina's "lithium triangle" alongside Catamarca and Jujuy—the Andean region holding world-significant brine deposits that could transform the country's export profile. With six approved lithium projects, three under construction, and 28 in advanced exploration, Salta positions itself for production expansion that began late 2024/early 2025 with Centenario Ratones online.
Argentina's lithium sector grew 62% in 2024, producing 74,600 tons of LCE from four active operations. The 2024 export breakdown—gold $3.14 billion (68%), silver $641 million (14%), lithium $631 million (13.6%)—reveals current mining hierarchy, but lithium's growth trajectory suggests reordering. National projections envision mining reaching $30 billion annually by 2035, rivaling agriculture and hydrocarbons.
Salta offers cost advantages through brine-form lithium plus diverse mineral wealth: borates, gold, silver, copper, uranium. The province coordinated with Jujuy and Catamarca through a joint committee addressing industry challenges—provincial cooperation unusual in Argentina's fragmented federal structure.
Environmental concerns shadow expansion. Lithium extraction consumes enormous water volumes in already-arid highland environments. The Catamarca Supreme Court's March 2024 order halting permits pending cumulative environmental assessment signals judicial constraints that may constrain Salta similarly. Mining companies argue altitude prevents agriculture anyway; communities counter that extraction threatens livestock and cultural survival.
By 2026, Salta tests whether lithium can drive regional development without water conflict escalation, or whether environmental constraints limit extraction that global EV demand theoretically enables.