Mining revenue does not go to the budget: it goes to a trust decided by a committee of three

It created the 'Mining Royalties Trust Fund of the Province of Catamarca', whose purpose is to allocate and apply the trust assets exclusively to financing infrastructure works, the acquisition of capital goods, and investment and productive development projects within the provincial territory. The Province is the settlor and Banco de la Nación Argentina is the trustee (contract signed 1-Jul-2022). The Fund is directed, supervised and controlled exclusively by a three-member Administration Committee: one representing the provincial Executive, who chairs it; the head of the Ministry of Economy as vice-chair; and the head of the Ministry of Labor, Planning and Human Resources as the third member (membership set by Decreto Acuerdo 1802 of 15-Jul-2022, amending art. 3 of DA 1055/2022). For each work financed, the Committee appoints a 'Works Manager' who runs the procurement process (clause 7.1); the Works Manager may be any centralized or decentralized public body, mixed-economy company, state-owned company, company with majority state ownership and also private companies competent in the procurement of the work concerned (clause 7.2). These procurements are NOT subject to art. 29 of Annex I - Partial Regulation No. 1 of Ley 4938 (the general provincial procurement regime) nor to the instructions issued by the Comptroller General within that framework. verif · May 5, 2022 ↗

5 May 2022 (creation); operating since the contract of 1-Jul-2022. verif · Jul 1, 2022 ↗

Mining municipalities and departments (which receive works, not money: Ley 5.642 of 2020 assigns them 35% of the royalties to the department where the deposit sits and its zone of influence (in equal parts if it covers two or more, art. 2) and 5% to the departments that supply water, but only entitles them to propose works, not to decide them); public-works firms and suppliers that want to execute those works; and the miners themselves, whose contributions feed the fund. Examples of works financed with mining revenue reported by the provincial press: $500 million for the Belén hospital and $300 million for paving in Andalgalá/Aconquija (May-2025), plus CT scanners in Andalgalá and Santa María. Two precisions on scope: the remaining 60% held by the Province is earmarked by art. 1 (infrastructure, capital goods and productive development), it does not enter general revenue; and art. 9 of Ley 5.642 sets local purchasing priority for works paid with mining revenue — that is, the trust channel brings its own local-content rule, independent of the Re.P.E.M. prob · May 2025 ↗