What is being invested in Salta

Confidence holds by facing head-on what tests it. The factors to follow closely:

• The environmental permit for Taca Taca, which is the step that unlocks everything else. It is the province's largest capital commitment — USD 5,250 M declared — and the one that decides the decade of Salta copper. The useful reading is not that «it has not filed for the RIGI yet», but that the project has already climbed four steps of a six-step ladder and you can see which one it is on: the consultation with indigenous communities was certified by the Secretariat of Indigenous Affairs in January 2025; the hydrological feasibility certificate was GRANTED by Salta's Secretariat of Water Resources in April 2026 — and it is worth reading with its textual scope: it authorizes water for the first stage, not for full capacity; the environmental impact study for the 345 kV line has been filed since September 2025 and is under review; and the mining ESIA is filed and awaiting approval, which the company itself places within 2026 once the public consultation is completed. Only then come the water concession, issued when the ESIA is approved, and the RIGI application, which the company said it will file after both. That is why the event to watch is not the national Official Gazette, which is the last link: it is the approval of the mining ESIA by Salta's environmental authority, which triggers the whole chain. A supplier that wants to be inside when construction starts has its clock right there, and it gives months of notice ahead of the other one. thesis the other data point worth watching in parallel is the operator's balance sheet — net debt of USD 5,407 M as of 30-Jun-2026, practically equal to the capital the project requires — which is the context in which the reported July 2026 process to sell a minority stake is to be understood; reading it as part of the clock is our own interpretation, and the company has declared no cause for any delay.
• The implementing rules for the RIGI accession and the tension with Ley 8164. The provincial accession is two sections with no implementing decree, no tax stability and no reference to the local-content law. As long as it stays that way, a supplier registering with the provincial registry does not know whether the 70% of section 17 reaches it inside a RIGI project, and the chambers have already said so publicly. It is settled by a decree or by an act, and both show up in Salta's Official Gazette.
• The boundary with Catamarca in the Salar del Hombre Muerto. The two provinces created interprovincial authorities by law and a 50/50 split of the taxes and royalties of the disputed area, but the ninth clause of the agreement ceases to have effect once Congress settles the boundary: at that point the winning province becomes the sole authority, and whoever structured their operation around the split has to redo it. It is settled outside the province and on a timetable nobody controls.