Neuquén moves toward its first mining royalties (2-3%) and toward rewriting its 1975 mining code

TWO structural changes for Neuquén mining: (A) Royalties — for the first time the province would charge mining royalties (until now 0%). Art. 6 of the bill sets a scale on the mine-mouth value of all extracted minerals: 3% when the products undergo processing outside the provincial territory, and 2% when they undergo intermediate and/or final processing inside Neuquén (an explicit incentive to local value-added). It covers 1st- and 2nd-category minerals of the National Mining Code and 3rd-category ones on fiscal-domain land (Art. 1); the mine-mouth value is determined by Art. 22 bis of National Law 24.196 (Art. 6). It exempts micro-enterprises (Art. 5) and extraction for scientific research / public works (Art. 4). It creates the Mining Development and Environmental Sustainability Fund (FODEMSA, Art. 9-11, an account at Banco Provincia de Neuquén) and the Mining Oversight Fee via an "Oversight Unit" equal to twice the rate of the Annual Tax Law (Art. 12); quarterly tax filing (Art. 7). (B) MINING CODE — the package's second bill: a 288-article Mining Procedure Code that would replace the 1975 Law 902, with digitization of file processing, environmental provisions raised to legal rank, dispersed rules organized in a single body, tighter inactivity deadlines for claims and a regime for 3rd-category (construction) minerals with 10-year extendable concessions and a mandatory fee. That articulation is not part of the royalties text: it is described by the provincial press (Río Negro, 05/15/2026), which also reports that deputy Damián Canuto is working on a "more compact" version of the Code. And the royalties text does NOT name lithium, copper or potassium: it uses the national classification (1st/2nd/3rd category), within which they fall without being enumerated. verif · May 15, 2026 ↗

Not in force. Bills in committee (Energy Committee) as of 05/15/2026, without a report. Submitted by the Executive at the opening of the March 2026 sessions. As of 07/16/2026 they remain NOT enacted: the Legislature resumes activity on 07/27/2026 after the winter recess and the governing bloc stated it seeks to enact them before year-end prob press. unconf · May 15, 2026

Any natural or legal person, public or private, national or foreign, that exploits, industrializes and/or markets minerals granted by the provincial State (Art. 5); joint liability among co-holders. Micro-enterprises are exempt (def. Art. 55 Law 25.300). Concretely: future lithium, copper, gold and potassium projects developed in Neuquén, today without a royalty burden — among them the Andacollo mine, which according to the provincial press the province plans to re-tender via Cormine. For the satellite ecosystem: mining, environmental and oversight-service providers gain new demand (tax filings, control, FODEMSA), and the 2% vs 3% differential rewards whoever installs processing inside the province. verif · May 15, 2026 ↗