Salta ratified the 50/50 split first

What changed

Salta approved by law the two agreements it had signed with Catamarca to operate the mining projects that fall on the territorial strip both provinces dispute: Act 8523 approves the Framework Agreement for the SAL DE ORO project (POSCO Argentina S.A.U.) together with three additional protocols — Interprovincial Management Committee, Mining Royalties and Provincial Taxes — and Act 8524 approves the Mining Project Facilitation and Promotion Agreement signed on 27-03-2025 (the Diablillos one) with four protocols — Determination of the Scope of Application, Interprovincial Management Committee, Mining Royalties and Provincial Taxes. verif · Jan 9, 2026 ↗

In force

In force since their publication in the provincial Official Gazette on 09-01-2026. verif · Jan 9, 2026 ↗

Who it affects

The operators of the projects on the disputed strip — Sal de Oro (POSCO Argentina S.A.U.) and Diablillos — and every supplier that invoices there. The specific purpose of the Framework Agreement, read in the published annex, is to provide a promotional scheme allowing the provinces to split in equal parts the taxes, royalties and any other levy on minerals extracted in the disputed area, and it establishes that both will benefit in the same proportion from any future national or provincial tax benefit affecting the project. The scope of application is the cadastral overlap area between the two provinces plus an Operations Expansion Zone (ZAO). The agreement expressly states that it implies no waiver or recognition of either party’s territorial rights, and acknowledges that the boundaries of the two jurisdictions are not defined within the area. verif · Jan 9, 2026 ↗

The norm

Ley 8523 (Sal de Oro) and Ley 8524 (agreement of Mar 27, 2025) of the Provincia de Salta, both passed on Dec 18, 2025, enacted by Decretos 1 and 2 of Jan 8, 2026 and published in the provincial Boletín Oficial N° 22106 of Jan 9, 2026. They are Salta's mirror of Catamarca's Ley 5.940, which ratified that same Mar 27, 2025 agreement only on May 14, 2026: Salta ratified almost five months earlier. verif · Jan 9, 2026 ↗

Our reading

The new fact is not the split — we already knew that from the press — but where it was written down. Catamarca ratified the agreement without publishing its Single Annex, and Salta published its own in full: the same fact that in one province was a journalistic account is, in the other, a legible act of State. For an investor that matters more than the anecdote, because it means the tax rules of the disputed strip can be verified without relying on a third party’s reading. It also confirms the real sequence of the file: Salta ratified on 18-12-2025 and Catamarca on 14-05-2026, five months later. The operational gap it opens is the same one as before and is now better grounded: two tax administrations will validate the same extracted tonne under a half-and-half split, and the agreement divides the revenue without setting the measurement method that produces it. thesis

Where it lands, province by province2

Salta It gives written, published legal certainty to two projects operating over a decades-old border dispute, without making them wait for the boundary to be settled. Investment proceeds under known tax rules. favorable thesis

Salta Splitting in half doubles the auditor without creating the method: two tax authorities verify the same extracted volume. That is a compliance cost for the operator and for its supplier — and concrete demand for whoever can produce a number both administrations will accept. mixed thesis

Salta ratified first, and its Gazette publishes the annex that Catamarca’s does not: the 50/50 split is there in writing

What changed and who it applies to

Our reading

Where it lands, province by province2

The other rules on this subject21

Get on board the takeoff