Mining Policy in Argentina and the Extractivist Model.

Abstract

In contrast with other Argentine public policies, the country’s mining policy is a state policy. This is made possible by a stability that is backed by interparty political agreement and enjoys the protection of a body of regulations that was put in place in the 1990s, and which has been boosted by the global price rises in metals, gold in particular. This enabled mining policy to escape the proenvironmental discourse of the Kirchner administrations since 2006, as well as allowing it to ignore public protest. Nor has it been impacted by the nationalist drive that succeeded in expropriating the shares held by the Spanish capital company Repsol-YPF.