Rincón Project — lithium carbonate (Rio Tinto)
The largest total investment among the lithium projects approved under the RIGI: Rio Tinto is building a 53,000 tpa plant at the Salar de Rincón using DLE (nanofiltration).
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 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
Rincón Mining PTY LTD. Argentina Branch (CUIT 30-70708643-9; Rio Tinto subsidiary) verif Jun 3, 2025 ↗
The works, milestone by milestone
CAPEMISA holds a new business meeting at Casa Minera between Salta suppliers and Rio Tinto: suppliers present their services and learn about the technical and operating requirements of the Rincón project.
IDB Invest approves a USD 100,000,000 loan for the project (9 December 2025); the contract is signed on 10 March 2026.
The IFC discloses the project's environmental and social review summary, with the operating headcount (~460 workers from 2029), the construction peak (4,200) and the permanent electrical infrastructure (two 23 km, 33 kV lines).
The province announces the three local mining-procurement measures and puts a number on the Rio Tinto agreement: Resolución N° 97/25. The other two are the agreement with CAPEMISA, which lets it file observations on registrations, and the IT system that cross-checks the list of suppliers present at the mine against the Registry.
Salta's Secretaría de Minería y Energía, CAPEMISA and Rincón Mining Pty Ltd, a Rio Tinto subsidiary, sign a collaboration agreement on the project's procurement: the company undertakes to share its contracting plans, to give advance notice of tender processes and to give feedback to suppliers so they can improve; the chamber provides contact with its members and the parties work together on monitoring.
Rio Tinto's board approves USD 2,500 M to expand the project to 60,000 t/year of battery grade lithium carbonate, with a 40-year mine life, construction of the expanded plant starting mid-2025 subject to permitting, and first production expected in 2028 with a three-year ramp-up.
First lithium production at the 3,000 t/year starter plant. Full commissioning and ramp-up continued afterwards, with project completion expected in the first quarter of 2025.
What it leaves in Salta
jobs, works, taxes, promises and the outlook
How many jobs it creates
about 4,200 workers at peak construction: 1,400 direct, 1,300 temporary and 1,500 third-party, plus 225 to run the 3,000 t/yr pilot plant workers at the PEAK of construction, broken down into direct, temporary and third-party prob Sep 26, 2025 ↗
approximately 460 workers from 2029 steady-state operating headcount; the document does not separate direct from indirect prob 2029 ↗
The place where it is built
Los Andes, Salta, before the RIGI: the official snapshot of November 2023, counting the people who live there.
2,071 jobs in November 2023, 32% of them in public administration verif Nov 2023 ↗
933 jobs: 590 in mining and 343 in construction verif Nov 2023 ↗
from 345 to 590 jobs verif Nov 2023 ↗
2 in 2022 verif 2022 ↗
1.3 times estim Nov 2023
2.0 times all registered jobs in the department and 4.5 times its miners and construction workers estim Nov 2023
The works that stay behind
The infrastructure that stays standing once the works end, with its size and its source.
Two 33 kV overhead power lines built to feed the plant at the Salar de Rincón
Powerlines of 23 km each (46 km of route in total), 33 kV
The project's own operation over the 40-year life declared. ⚠️ Neither source says it supplies Olacapato or any third party, and no such claim is made here: what remains is the route and the installed capacity in a part of the Puna that had neither.
Both lender reviews describe the electrical infrastructure the same way: « overhead transmission lines ('OHTL', two 23 km, 33 kV lines) » in the IFC's environmental and social summary, and « power transmission lines (two 23 km, 33 kV lines) » in IDB Invest's project record.
- 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-2025-20445333-APN-SCEYM#MEC verif Jun 3, 2025 ↗
May 19, 2025 verif Jun 3, 2025 ↗
The act’s articles, in detail
2 facts on the commitment
30 June 2029 to complete the minimum investment amount. verif Jun 30, 2029 ↗
Rincón Mining PTY LTD. Sucursal Argentina, tax ID 30-70708643-9, registered at Manuela Sáenz 323, Apartment 613, Buenos Aires City. verif Jun 3, 2025 ↗
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-01Who holds a contract on the Rincón works+
None of the open sources names a single contractor. The IFC review summary mentions them in the abstract — « Project contractors and sub-contractors are required to implement those portions of the borrower's ESMS that fall within their scope of work » — and lists none; neither the operator nor the province has published any award. It is the largest RIGI work in Salta and its contracting chain is not public. || Searched again on 6 September 2026 with two further searches, and the zero repeats: no contractor's corporate name has been published. What is published for the period is the financing —a USD 1,175 million package from international lenders announced in March 2026 against an estimated project cost of some USD 2,500 million— and the construction status, with the starter plant already operating and first production from the large plant expected in 2028. Both are already on this profile with their primary source: the financing, in the project status, and the construction status, both read in Rio Tinto's half-year report.
H-02The local-purchase percentage that governs this project+
This is a gap that CANNOT BE CLOSED through documents, and saying so spares the next pass: the stage-by-stage progressive percentage lives in the agreement approved by Resolución 97/25, and that resolution is not published in Salta's official gazette — the search was exhausted by number, by notices and by subject in the August 2026 pass. The other place where art. 20 of Ley 8164 sets a progressive 40-to-70% system is the environmental approval, and Rincón's environmental impact declaration is not published either. ⚠️ A figure also circulates claiming Salta contracting rose from close to 30% to between 35% and 40%: it is not recorded here because no source supporting it could be opened.
H-03The project's final capacity: the act and the lender do not say the same thing+
The sources do not agree and the difference has an arithmetic explanation, but no document writes it down. The IFC summary says « two production plants (stages 1 and 2) of 25 thousand tonnes per year (ktpa) each, with a final production capacity of 50 ktpa »; Resolución 735/2025 declares 53,000 t/yr with potential for 60,000; and the province's official release on the environmental impact declaration spoke of 50,000. The two new commercial plants add up to 50,000, and the figure in the act adds the small 3,000 t/yr plant already running: 25 + 25 + 3 = 53. That is OUR reconciliation, not a quotation, and so it is not published as fact.
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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