Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes (PPG)
The largest RIGI application Salta has filed, and the one its portfolio was missing: over USD 3,000 M across three stages on the Pozuelos and Pastos Grandes salt flats, filed on 28 Feb 2026 and still unresolved. Declared capacity at full build-out of the three stages is more than 150,000 tonnes of lithium a year — a figure both sources report without specifying whether it means lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) or lithium metal, a ~5.3x difference that rules it out for any sizing. It comes from merging the Pozuelos and Pastos Grandes basins into a joint venture between Ganfeng and Lithium Argentina (Aug 2025); as of Jun 2026 the partners were seeking a third investor to finance development.
The projectwhat it is, the route, the owners, the works and the contractors
Who owns it
Ganfeng Lithium (through Ganfeng Lithium LATAM and its subsidiary Lithea Inc.) together with Lithium Argentina AG prob · Feb 28, 2026 ↗
What is missing from this fact sheet
Above is what has already passed verification with its source: who operates it, how much it declares it will invest, where it stands under the RIGI and where it is. Still missing are the works milestone by milestone, the contractors, the entry map for suppliers, what it leaves in the province and what could stall it: that is published once it passes the three layers, not before. The project has been filed under the RIGI and has not been approved yet. The works, the awards and the instrument in the Boletín Oficial come later.
How to supply itwhere to register, what they ask for and what they will buy
What it will need and has no supplier for yet
Hydrogeology, flow model and sign-off of the consolidated basin's resource report
mediumPPG is not one salar: it is Pozuelos + Pastos Grandes under a single operator, and its technical report is dated 30-Apr-2023, before that consolidation. A three-stage build-out over two aquifers forces a re-signing of the resource. The gap is NOT the metre drilled —AGV Falcon, a Salta firm, already lists Ganfeng among its clients— but the firm that models the aquifer. It deliberately overlaps with the hydrogeology block of the province's drilling niche, which already sizes it: here we state that this project is what triggers it. Media and not alta: CAPEMISA's register lists six geophysics/hydrogeology firms, so «there is no supply» would be false — what is scarce is the signed numerical model.
Local-content file for the environmental permit of stages 2 and 3
mediumThis is what a foreign supplier chain cannot self-supply: it requires an Argentine licence and a file before the provincial authority. The clock is a rule in force and read in its primary source: article 20 of Ley 8164 conditions approval of the first-category environmental and social impact study on a progressive contracting system of between 40% and 70% of total payroll, «according to the stage and scale», and PPG only has the stage-1 permit approved. Media and not alta because the operator itself already reports >80% regional payroll at Mariana: the market is not «help me comply» but «prove it», which is smaller and which so far nobody has bought.
Get on board the takeoff
This week’s updates: proyectos RIGI, proveedores y datos verificados de Salta and new provinces as they launch. Free.
