Agua Rica / MARA — copper, gold, silver and molybdenum (Glencore)
Catamarca's largest copper project and the largest capital investment in the province. MARA integrates the Agua Rica deposit (Andalgalá) with the plant, the concentrate pipeline and the infrastructure already built at Bajo de la Alumbrera, which stopped mining in 2018: reusing an existing plant is the project's best economics and, at the same time, its most contested environmental argument (the plan is to use Alumbrera's depleted pit as a tailings facility). Proven and probable reserves declared as of 30-Jun-2019 (100% basis): 1,105 Mt at 0.49% copper, 0.03% molybdenum, 0.21 g/t gold and 2.8 g/t silver; the 2025 RIGI release cites approximately 1,200 Mt at 0.47% copper, 0.20 g/t gold, 3.40 g/t silver and 0.03% molybdenum (measured and indicated, a different basis: do not add them up). Estimated mine life 27-28 years. Glencore declared more than 10,000 construction jobs and more than 2,500 operating jobs, but COMBINED with El Pachón: do not attribute them to Catamarca. While the big project waits, the restart of Alumbrera's remaining phases is moving ahead with a first equipment and maintenance contract of ~USD 250 M and a water concession cut back from 1,200 to 800 liters per second.
How to supply it
what we have for a supplier, and how to request it
What we have on this project for a supplier
Who decides the purchase, who you invoice and where a new supplier registers.
Which lines each phase buys and when the window opens for each one.
Which they are, why it will need them and who could provide them.
All of this is surveyed and verified against its source. Crossed with what you sell —which of them your products suit, how to reach it and when— it is in your company report. Request the report
We cross what you manufacture or do against the 3 phases of this project and tell you which ones you fit into and when each one buys. Two pages, with the evidence behind them.
Where my company can get inThe project
what it is, the route, the owners, the works and the contractors
Who owns it
Minera Agua Rica LLC, Argentine Branch; 100% controlled by Glencore International AG since 31-Jul-2023 (previously Yamana Gold 56.25% / Glencore 25% / Newmont 18.75%). Pan American Silver retains a 0.75% NSR royalty on copper for the life of the mine. prob Aug 18, 2025 ↗
The works, milestone by milestone
The national Government announces that the Comité Evaluador approved Agua Rica's admission to the RIGI. According to the statement: USD 4,000 million of investment, with USD 771 million in the first two years; 200,000 tonnes of copper a year and exports of USD 2,167 million a year; the ore is processed at the Alumbrera plant, travels by slurry pipeline to Tucumán and by rail to the port of Rosario; up to 3,500 jobs in construction and 1,250 direct and 3,750 indirect jobs in operation; works from November 2027 and operation from October 2031.
MARA filed with the Mining Ministry of Catamarca the Environmental Impact Report (IIA) for the exploitation stage, which contemplates developing Agua Rica using Alumbrera's existing infrastructure. It is now under evaluation.
The project's headcount went from 1,109 jobs in January 2026 to 1,844 in August: +735 in eight months, a 66.3% rise. Of those 735 new jobs, 575 went to people from Catamarca, and on the total 1,484 of 1,844 are from Catamarca — 80.5%.
Verbatim from Glencore's first-half results presentation: «Agua Rica feasibility engineering underway. Environmental permitting submission expected to be filed in the coming weeks. RIGI approval expected shortly thereafter». It is the only declared date for the environmental permit, and it comes without a day.
Glencore sets the restart of mining at Bajo de la Alumbrera —the old mine whose plant MARA will reuse— for 2 June 2026, with first production expected in the second half of 2027.
Glencore announces that it filed the RIGI adhesion applications for El Pachón and Agua Rica. Agua Rica enters at USD 4,000 M, the midpoint of a declared range of USD 3,500 to 4,500 M. The release says «has submitted applications»: it is a filing, not an approval.
What it leaves in Catamarca
jobs, works, taxes, promises and the outlook
How many jobs it creates
up to 3,500 jobs at the construction peak; neither of the two sources separates direct from indirect verif Oct 2, 2026 ↗
1,250 direct and 3,750 indirect jobs in operation, direct and indirect stated separately verif Oct 2, 2026 ↗
The place where it is built
Andalgalá, Catamarca, before the RIGI: the official snapshot of November 2023, counting the people who live there.
5,323 jobs in November 2023, 65% of them in public administration verif Nov 2023 ↗
791 jobs: 251 in mining and 540 in construction verif Nov 2023 ↗
from 145 to 251 jobs verif Nov 2023 ↗
5 in 2022 verif 2022 ↗
4.8 times estim Nov 2023
0.4 times all registered jobs in the department and 2.5 times its miners and construction workers estim Nov 2023
The works that stay behind
The project has been filed under the RIGI and has not been approved yet. Permanent works are documented once construction starts.
What it already pays in taxes and royalties
The project has been filed under the RIGI and has not been approved yet. Royalties and production taxes begin with operation.
Who promised what
We have not surveyed the public promises about this project. A dated, verifiable commitment with its source closes them.
What could stall it
risks and how to track them
- What could stall it — We have not documented this project’s risks. An identifiable vector with its source closes them.
- How to tell whether it is advancing — We have not defined this project’s indicators: what observable fact marks its progress still has to be identified.
How we verified this
the act, the gaps and the sources
The RIGI act, in detail
The project has been filed under the RIGI and has not been approved yet. The instrument is published in the Boletín Oficial once the Committee approves the accession.
What we could not confirm
There are 4 in this project. Each says why it could not be confirmed and what it would take to close it.
H-01The RIGI Comité Evaluador approval announced on Oct 2, 2026+
It is announced by the national Government and by Glencore itself, but there is no resolution in the Official Gazette and the project does not appear in the official list of approved projects. An act of State requires publication: that is why the project is still counted as filed.
H-02When construction starts and when operation begins+
The official announcement gives works from November 2027 and operation from October 2031, but these are forecasts attributed to the company: the binding schedule is read in the recitals of the admission resolution, which has not been published in the Official Gazette.
H-03Which contractors Agua Rica has awarded+
None. Everything awarded and published in the province by Glencore belongs to the Bajo de la Alumbrera restart —the heavy fleet of more than USD 250 M with the brand's dealer, and three rotary drill rigs— not to the construction of Agua Rica, which has not started. Two independent investigations of this project reached the same conclusion separately, and that is what makes it a finding: when two searches that did not read each other declare the same gap, the absence is a fact and not a search failure.
H-04The provincial environmental file of the project, which is the clock everyone is watching+
The executive summary of the expansion of Declaración de Impacto Ambiental 418 and the 2025 public-participation disposition are published on the Government of Catamarca portal, and today they could not be opened: the entire catamarca.gob.ar domain sits behind an automated anti-robot control that yields neither to a page reader nor to a browser. The gap is one of access, not of existence: we know the documents are there. ✅ UPDATED 18 Sep 2026: the Environmental Impact Report for the exploitation stage has now been filed (8 Sep 2026) and is under evaluation — what still cannot be opened is the file on the provincial portal, so the Environmental Impact Declaration still does not exist and its clock is still running.
We look at what your company does and tell you whether we see a sign that it fits this market, with the evidence behind it. If we do not see one, we say so too and name the condition that would change it. One page as a dated PDF, within 48 working hours.
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