The norm, in detail
Mining: export duties to 0% for most products
Decree 563/2025
in forceNATIONAL
Energy and natural resources
What changed and who it applies to
What changed
Decree 563/2025 sets at 0% the Export Duty (D.E.) rate for the goods covered by the NCM tariff positions detailed in its Annex (IF-2025-80536077-APN-SM#MEC), which covers non-metallic mining, metalliferous mining, construction rocks, fuels and precious/semi-precious stones (lime, granite, borates, dolomite, bentonite, copper, zinc, lead, etc.). The official communication and CAEM quantify the scope at 231 positions (41 construction minerals, 54 non-metallic, 133 metalliferous); that count comes from the official communication/press, not from the Annex audited position by position (the Annex is published only in the web edition of the Official Gazette). Lithium and silver are NOT included in the Annex and keep their PRE-EXISTING rate of 4.5% (the decree neither creates nor modifies it). Art. 2 repeals Decree 308/2022, which had created the Optional Copper Export Registry (with no registered beneficiaries). verif · Aug 6, 2025 ↗
In force
08/08/2025 (art. 3: in force from the day after its publication in the Official Gazette, which was 08/07/2025). verif · Aug 8, 2025 ↗
Who it affects
Exporters of the Argentine mining sector whose products appear in the Annex (non-metallic and metalliferous mining, construction rocks, fuels, precious/semi-precious stones): operators and SMEs that export lime, granite, borates, dolomite, bentonite, copper, zinc, lead, among others. Mining accounts on average for ~80% of the export basket of provinces such as Jujuy, Santa Cruz, San Juan and Catamarca (decree recitals). Lithium and silver exporters are excluded from the benefit and keep 4.5%. verif · Aug 6, 2025 ↗
The norm
Decreto 563/2025 (DECTO-2025-563-APN-PTE), signed in the City of Buenos Aires on Aug 6, 2025, published in the Boletín Oficial on Aug 7, 2025 (DetalleNorma 329440). A delegated decree issued under the powers of art. 755, paragraphs 1 and 2, incs. a) and c), of Ley 22.415 (Customs Code). Signatories: Javier Milei, Guillermo Francos (Chief of Staff) and Luis Andrés Caputo (Economy Minister). Art. 4: notice is given to the Comisión Bicameral Permanente of Congress. verif · Aug 6, 2025 ↗
Our reading
The Government takes export duties to 0% on most mining products: less tax burden, more margin for operators and supplier SMEs and a direct incentive to export and produce (R5, tax cut; R4, deregulation). It is consistent with the opening and simplification course. What is worth following: lithium and silver were left out (they stay at 4.5%), and being a delegated decree it goes through the Bicameral Committee — the fine scope depends on the NCM Annex, which we have not yet audited position by position. thesis
Where it lands, province by province5
Neuquén In Neuquén the 0% mining export duty does not improve an existing margin: provincial mining is pre-productive and CORMINE has only just become a corporation in order to partner with private players on lithium and copper. So it arrives as a condition set before the investment decision. And the province is already writing on the other side: its own mining royalty regime, 3% if processed outside and 2% if within. favorable better export netback thesis
Río Negro Calcatreu made the first gold and silver export in Río Negro's history: doré of ~70% gold and 30% silver. Gold goes to 0% and silver keeps its pre-existing 4.5%, so the relief is partial and depends on which tariff line the doré is declared under. The iron concentrate Sierra Grande still ships through Punta Colorada, today at minimal scale, falls in the same metals family. favorable better export netback thesis
Salta Salta's 2025 mining basket is 59.1% gold, 26.7% lithium, 12.8% borates and 0.8% copper. The decree's annex names borates and takes them to 0%, but leaves out lithium and silver, which stay at 4.5%: the line growing at 222% year-on-year and Diablillos' by-product are precisely the two that do not fall. Here the cut in export duties relieves the small and skips what is being built. mixed better export netback thesis
Catamarca Decree 563/2025 takes mining export duties to 0% but leaves lithium and silver at 4.5%. Catamarca has the country's highest mining-to-exports ratio (96.4%) and its entire producing portfolio is brine lithium — Fénix, Sal de Vida, Tres Quebradas, Hombre Muerto Oeste: it does not capture the cut. Agua Rica/MARA copper does, but it is halted by an environmental permit. The netback that moves expansions did not move here. mixed better export netback thesis
San Juan 91% of what San Juan exports is mining — USD 849 M in the first four months of 2026 — and gold was 99% of that basket: a 0% export duty lifts Veladero's and Gualcamayo's netback today, not in 2030, and shifts the cut-off grade in their mine plans. For the copper still to come, it locks 0% into the FID calculation. What stays out is silver, still at 4.5% and shipped in the same doré as the gold. favorable better export netback thesis
The other rules on this subject28
The State reorders the trunk gas pipelines and forces firm transportation contracts to be redrawnRes. SE 66/2026 (Official Gazette, Mar 13, 2026) + Res. ENARGAS 409/2026in execution
Hydrocarbons: the prior domestic-offer step for exports is goneSE Res. 166/2026 (Official Gazette, Jul 22, 2026)in force
The Comahue returns to private hands: 4 dams awarded in concessionRes. 2124/2025, Ministry of Economy (Official Gazette Dec 30, 2025)in force
End of segmentation: energy subsidies are targeted at those who need themDecree 943/2025 (Official Gazette, Jan 2, 2026)in force
Ignacio Aredez· Chief analyst
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