Fénix — Phase 1B Expansion: lithium carbonate (Minera del Altiplano / Rio Tinto)
Expansion (Phase 1B) of the historic Fénix lithium-carbonate project in the Salar del Hombre Muerto, operated by Rio Tinto via Minera del Altiplano. It adds 9,500 t/year of capacity (to 38,000 t/year). Phase 1B already reached first production in Q2 2026, ahead of plan, and is still commissioning; the resolution sets that 60% of the amount earmarked for paying suppliers, goods and works goes to local suppliers (the act says exactly 60%, not «more than 60%»). The schedule the company announced —start toward Jul-2026 and works through Nov-2026— was overtaken by that early start.
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.
Who they are, what each one does and how to sell to 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 2 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 del Altiplano S.A. Dedicated Branch (MDASD, CUIT 30-71906845-2); operated by Rio Tinto (formerly Arcadium/Livent) verif Apr 6, 2026 ↗
The works, milestone by milestone
The Government of Catamarca announces that Rio Tinto will start up the Fénix 1B expansion on October 28, 2026, the same day it inaugurates the new Sal de Vida plant.
Fase 1B achieves first production in the second quarter of 2026, ahead of plan, and remains in commissioning.
Contreras publishes the project sheet for the EPC of the Olacapato compressor plant, a work included in Fase 1B, with execution period «En ejecución».
Resolución 431/2026 of the Ministry of Economy approves the project's RIGI adhesion for the Expansión Fase 1B, as the expansion of a pre-existing non-adhered project, for USD 251,321,494 in computable assets.
Rio Tinto closes the purchase of Arcadium Lithium and becomes the owner of Fénix and Sal de Vida.
What it leaves in Catamarca
jobs, works, taxes, promises and the outlook
The place where it is built
Antofagasta de la Sierra, Catamarca, before the RIGI: the official snapshot of November 2023, counting the people who live there.
1,524 jobs in November 2023, 52% of them in public administration verif Nov 2023 ↗
211 jobs: 124 in mining and 87 in construction verif Nov 2023 ↗
from 50 to 124 jobs verif Nov 2023 ↗
0 in 2022 verif 2022 ↗
2.2 times estim Nov 2023
The works that stay behind
The infrastructure that stays standing once the works end: 138 km across line and road, with its size and its source.
Olacapato natural gas compressor plant, in the Los Andes department of Salta
PowerThe gas transport system of the Puna. The compression is added so that the lithium expansion has gas, but it stays installed on a pipeline that does not belong to the project, in another province.
Resolución 431/2026 lists it within the scope of the Expansión Fase 1B, and the Contreras S.A. project sheet declares it «En ejecución» as of 7-Apr-2026, with client Río Tinto Lithium / Minera del Altiplano S.A.
The Fenix gas pipeline, which brought natural gas to the Salar del Hombre Muerto for the first time
Powerfrom Salar de Pocitos (Salta) to the salt flat, completed in 2015; the provincial dossier attributes to it a 6-inch diameter and some US$22 million of private investment, 2013–2014 figures that no current source reconfirms
The Catamarca high plateau and the corridor linking Pocitos with the Salar del Hombre Muerto: it is the only gas route in the area, and the expansion of the other projects on the salt flat hangs from it — POSCO formally asked the Salta Senate for a gas connection.
The 135 km pipeline from Pocitos was completed in 2015 to supply gas to the Fénix facilities prob. The Phase 1B expansion rests on that same route: the new compressor plant being built at Olacapato, included in its scope by Resolución 431/2026, will expand the transport capacity of the La Puna and Fénix pipelines prob.
Los Patos river aqueduct, the freshwater work that is the object of the basin's court case
Waterpumping wells and an aqueduct of at least 32 km to the plant, according to the 2018 environmental file reconstructed in the provincial dossier. What this pass does date is the STATUS: as of February 2025 it was under construction and not yet operating.
No one yet, and that is the knot: this is fresh water from the sub-basin that recharges the salt flat, and the Catamarca Court of Justice went as far as barring new permits on the Los Patos river until a cumulative impact study was done. The work ends up installed on the very resource the community of Antofagasta de la Sierra is claiming.
The independent audit of the operation records that «the Los Patos aqueduct itself was not operative at the time of the audit and as such was excluded from the scope of this audit», and that «to meet future freshwater demands, the company is constructing an aqueduct to supplement water reserves from the Los Patos Aquifer». The environmental file that authorizes it has a name and a date: «Environmental Impact Assessment for the Groundwater Utilization and Conveyance to the Fenix Plant – Los Patos Aqueduct», September 2018. The surveillance audit, due between 12 and 18 months after the report was published, brings it expressly into its scope.
Airstrip at the Fenix camp
Connectivitylong
The high plateau of Antofagasta de la Sierra: a 3 km airstrip at over 4,000 metres is evacuation and access infrastructure for the whole area, not only for the mine.
The camp at the Fenix mine operates with an airstrip 3 km long.
- What it already pays in taxes and royalties — We have not broken down this project’s local fiscal contribution: the primary source that sets each item still has to be opened, and an act of the State is not published on press backing.
- 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
EX-2025-96020964- -APN-SCEYM#MEC verif Apr 6, 2026 ↗
Mar 25, 2026 verif Apr 6, 2026 ↗
The act’s articles, in detail
4 facts on the commitment
60 % of the amount earmarked for suppliers that goes to LOCAL suppliers verif Apr 6, 2026 ↗
The entire investment amount earmarked for paying suppliers, goods and infrastructure works, during the project's construction and operation stages verif Apr 6, 2026 ↗
1 December 2026 to complete the minimum investment amount. verif Dec 1, 2026 ↗
Minera del Altiplano S.A. Sucursal Dedicada (MDASD), tax ID 30-71906845-2, registered at Intendente Lascano 2100, San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca. verif Apr 6, 2026 ↗
What we could not confirm
There are 3 in this project. Each says why it could not be confirmed and what it would take to close it.
H-01How many people the construction employs and how many stay working in operation+
No RIGI admission resolution publishes the figure: the seventeen that are published state that the company «provided the estimate of direct and indirect employment of the Project with local integration» and do not transcribe it. The official RIGI portal publishes a single figure that adds direct and indirect jobs together and does not separate the two stages, and mixing them is exactly the error the `empleo` field exists to prevent.
H-02Who is executing the civil works of the Expansión Fase 1B+
Among the sources reviewed, the only work within the RIGI scope with a known contractor is the Olacapato compressor plant, which Contreras declares on its project sheet; Resolución 431/2026 names the work, not the company. Milicic S.A. declares the civil works of phases 1 and 2 of the plant expansion as executed, but its sheet nowhere names the 1B: those are the phases of its own contract, not the project's 1A and 1B. And Resolución 431/2026 states that the company «discriminó los montos destinados a la cancelación de las obligaciones asumidas en contrataciones de servicios esenciales con identificación del proveedor», referring to a case file that the Official Gazette notice does not transcribe.
H-03Whether the Los Patos river aqueduct falls within the scope of Phase 1B, and when the work finishes+
Several press reports describing Resolution 431/2026 say the scope includes the aqueduct from the Los Patos river and the permits to drill the wells, and put completion of the work in November 2026. Our own reading of the Official Gazette notice does NOT list the aqueduct: it records the 9,500 t/year expansion, the amount in eligible assets and the Olacapato compressor station, and sets 1 December 2026 as the deadline. On what has been read, it cannot be stated that the aqueduct is inside.
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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