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up to date · reviewed Aug 3, 2026
Salta · Puna de Los Andes and La Poma · drilling, wells and hydrogeology
It is the only market in the province that waits for no investment decision — but the gap is at the opposite end from the one everyone is watchingthesis

High-altitude drilling, brine wells and hydrogeology in the Salta puna

estimated market per year
USD 12-57 M/year
estim Aug 3, 2026midpoint ~USD 29 M/yearurgent demandurgent arc · It is the only Salta mining services market that does NOT wait for an investment decision: there are two rigs turning at El Quevar, Diablillos' phase VI started in January 2026 declared fully financed, and Fortuna Mining has 3.7 million dollars approved for exploration in 2026. What is being bought now is silver and gold meters; what arrives later, with every plant that enters operation, is the brine well and its hydrogeology, which is the recurring part and the one that does not switch off in 2029.

Here drilling capacity is not what is missing: there is too much of it. The documented workload calls for something like seven to eight active rigs, and a single Salta company declares twelve, plus another five drillers based in the province. What is missing is people and not iron: only one Salta hydrogeology consultancy could be identified for 54 advanced exploration projects with approved environmental assessment, and the professional who signs the brine resource estimate travels in from outside. And it is a market that is already billing, without waiting for anything to be approved —there are rigs turning, a drilling phase that started declared fully funded, and a miner with an exploration budget written into its own release—, because exploration is not paid out of construction capex: it is paid by the capital market that funds junior companies. It runs on a different clock.

What the market is made of

The number is spend contracted on the well: the meter, the completion and the interpretation. It is built from three blocks that are three different markets and that are usually conflated — one is being paid for now, one arrives with every plant that enters operation, and the third is very low volume and very high margin. Sample assaying, the flowmeter, the camp and mobilization are deliberately excluded: each has its own market in this same province.

Exploration drill holesUSD 15.8 M · 54%
Wells and monitoringUSD 8.5 M · 29%
HydrogeologyUSD 4.7 M · 16%
Exploration drill holesUSD 15.8 M54%non-addressable
the meter billed today, and it is all hard rock: silver in two projects, gold in another two. Not one meter of those contracted this year is brine, which is a different rig and a different client. It is marked as non-addressable for an uncomfortable but measured reason: here there is a surplus of fleet —the throughput requires some eight rigs and there are considerably more— and the contracts are awarded and renewed with the drilling companies that already have a track record and clients. But it is not locked, it is awarded, which is different: from this block you can take the crew subcontract from the driller who already has the contract, and the 8,000 to 12,000 meters a year you do with one or two rigs rented or bought at the bottom of the cycle. It is exactly year 1-2 of the wedge further down.
Wells and monitoringUSD 8.5 M29%your market
new and replacement brine wells, industrial and camp water wells, piezometers and rehabilitation of existing wells. It is the recurring block: it arrives with every plant that enters operation and it does not switch off with construction. And it is not invented demand — the Water Code has required since 1999 that every borehole in the province carry an approved flow control device, and the shared-area protocol allows observation wells to be required. With one caveat worth reading before sizing this block: that chapter of the Code deals with groundwater, so extending it to the brine well —which is a mining resource and not a water resource— is a reading of ours and not the text of the rule.
HydrogeologyUSD 4.7 M16%your market
characterization, numerical flow model, long-duration pumping tests and the signed-off resource estimate, plus the operational hydrogeology of the sites already running. It is the smallest block and the highest margin, and the one that holds the real gap: the sign-off travels from abroad. Honesty about the number: this block's fees are a pure assumption — there is no rate card or reference fee for hydrogeology consulting in the country.
Declared midpoint of each block in the method, adjusted to the published headline of ~USD 29 M/year — here the method's midpoints added up on their own and the adjustment was less than a point. Our own estimate. estim

The rule that moves it

This niche's driver is not a reform but a 1999 rule —the Water Code, which requires every borehole to be metered— and the capital the junior companies raise. What are new regime are the three below, which define who can charge, how much they keep and what happens with the shared salt flat. Each one opens its own page, with the rule, since when it applies and its primary source.

enablesSalta: 70/60 local mining procurementIt defines who counts as a local supplier —actual and tax address in the province, 80% of the payroll here, 51% of the capital— and leaves the door open for the outsider with the joint venture with a Salta partner from 30%, which in this segment is the natural structure for partnering with an international hydrogeology firm without moving the company. But it is worth reading it before building a plan on top: it says they shall preferably contract and it sets no penalties. It is preference with a reward, not a quota — and the local content commitments in the resolutions are over the investment amount, not by category.see the reform →enablesSalta cuts the rate 20% for retail and hospitality, and exempts newly registered taxpayers for 12 monthsIt is the one that funds year one and it has a date: a new taxpayer that registers voluntarily pays a zero rate for up to twelve months, and it lapses at the end of 2026 unless extended. In this niche it matters twice as much because the activity splits into three lines of the schedule with two different rates: the water well is construction and pays the lowest, the exploration hole is a mining support service and pays with no permanent exemption, and hydrogeology consulting is professional activity. A single company can bill all three, and whoever does not separate them ends up paying the expensive line on everything.see the reform →touchesSalta ratified first, and its Gazette publishes the annex that Catamarca’s does not: the 50/50 split is there in writingIt is the one that makes this niche most uncomfortable, and it is declared instead of glossed over: the brine well is physically drilled inside the cadastral overlap area between the two provinces, so the decision to count that market on the Salta side is more arguable here than in any other segment —it is applied all the same because the scope measures demand for services and not tax attribution or royalties—. The protocol, moreover, allows piezometers and observation wells to be required, which is direct demand for this niche. Watch clause nine: the agreement lapses when Congress settles the boundary between the two provinces.see the reform →

What forces someone to pay for this

The underlying policy that opens up this demand. It is the same inference declared by the rules and the program pillars pushing in this direction.

lowers country risk + the RIGI promise is kept

Which projects already buy this

This market does not float on its own: concrete megaprojects drive it. These are the ones moving demand for this niche — each with its investment and status.

USD 2,744 M Jun 3, 2025

The largest RIGI commitment in Argentine lithium: Rio Tinto is building a 53,000 tpa plant at the Salar de Rincón using DLE (nanofiltration)…

see the project →

Gold and silver mining in the puna, on the Salta/Catamarca border area: feasibility development, a 3.15 Mt/yr processing plant and full infrastructure…

see the project →

Second stage of POSCO’s Sal de Oro lithium complex in the Salar del Hombre Muerto, on the disputed Salta/Catamarca border strip: it adds a 23,000…

see the project →

The niche in depth

Who splits the market, where you get in, what pays and what could break it.

Who is
already in
Market
split
AGV Falcon Drilling SRL (Grupo AGV, Salta)the largest declared fleet in the province; with no public register of awards there is no hard percentage, but it is the only Salta drilling company with fleet size and a portfolio of named clients

Exploration and water production well segments. Founded in 2012 out of the exit of a Canadian drilling company that left the country in 2010 prob information from the company itself. It declares 12 complete rigs and 160 employees prob information from the company itself and from Salta's mining suppliers' chamber. Scope: surface and underground diamond drilling, rotary for water production wells, brine sampling, geotechnics and hole deviation. Named clients: Mansfield (Lindero), First Quantum (Taca Taca), Sales de Jujuy and Ganfeng prob same source. The most important fact in this entry: 12 rigs in a single company against the 7 or 8 that the province's entire documented throughput requires estim our own calculation indicates that Salta's installed drilling capacity is not the bottleneck. A caveat that has to be stated so as NOT TO EXAGGERATE THE idle fleet: those 12 rigs do not work in Salta alone — among the clients named by the company itself there are operations in Jujuy — so comparing demand measured only in Salta against a fleet serving several provinces overstates how much rig capacity is really parked in the province estim our own calculation.

Hidrotec S.A. (northern Argentina, based in Salta)the brine production well specialist; with no publicly named contract

Production well segment, which is the one with the highest margin and the lowest supplier turnover. It has accumulated more than 30,000 meters of brine production wells in salt flats and more than 20,000 meters of diamond drilling in salt flats prob information from the company itself — and it has to be read properly: that is the total of its entire track record, not annual output. Declared technical capacity: water wells to 1,500 meters and diamond drilling to 2,150 meters prob ídem. It drilled the Río Grande project under the supervision of the titleholder's geologists prob.

Conhidro S.R.L. (city of Salta)the only confirmed Salta hydrogeology consultancy, against 54 advanced exploration projects

Hydrogeology segment, the scarcest and the one with the highest value per hour. Incorporated on 19-Apr-2004, with its address in the city of Salta prob public registries and trade press. It declares more than 300 projects across eight jurisdictions prob ídem. Scope: technical direction and supervision of water capture works, geophysical well logging and mathematical flow models. It is the counterexample to the claim that the capacity does not exist: it exists, it is from Salta and there is one of it.

Montgomery & Associatesthe international reference firm that signs off the brine resource estimates of the lithium triangle; share not quantifiable, but it is the segment where the local supplier is NOT present

International technical report sign-off segment. It signed the technical reports of the Hombre Muerto North project in 2017 and 2018 prob. A salt flat's resource is not the rock: it is the water, and its estimate depends on drainable porosity, specific yield and the flow model. The market of professionals qualified to sign that off is tiny and bills in dollars from abroad. It is the hardest captive in the niche, and the barrier is not the fee: it is whose sign-off gets accepted.

SRK, Atacama Water, Worley, Knight Piésold and Anddesthey appear as technical report and engineering consultancies on lithium triangle projects and at Lindero; share unknown

Consulting and engineering segment. None of them has a verifiable office of its own in Salta unconf. They are declared because they are the ones taking work today that a local entrant would contest, not because they are established in the province.

Drilling Service S.A.with no publicly named contract

Exploration and brine segments. It declares 33 years of track record and more than 600 projects across six northern provinces, with drilling for brine extraction unconf.

Andina Perforaciones SRL (member of Salta's mining suppliers' chamber)with no publicly named contract

Water wells for mining use segment, which is the line that pays the lowest rate in the whole services chain. Declared clients: ADY Resources, Minera del Altiplano and Sales de Jujuy unconf.

Eco Drilling Argentina SRL (San Lorenzo, Salta), Salta Perforaciones and Perforaciones Iglesianasdeclared local offer with no named contract

Three more names with a declared base in the province: a fleet of mining drill rigs, water drilling, and drilling combined with earthworks and logistics unconf for all three. They are listed because they are the proof that the claim 'there are no drilling companies in Salta' is false: there are at least six drilling companies with a declared base in the province prob our own survey of the local offer.

The operator's own crew and geology teamthe real competitor in the highest-margin segment, and it is not a company

Rio Tinto, First Quantum and Eramet bring the hydrogeological model of their own resource in-house. An honest counterpoint, and it is what sets this niche apart from almost all the others: a meter drilled cannot be imported. The rig is imported and the professional who signs off is imported, but the meter is drilled on site, with people on site. That is why this market's captive share is smaller than that of catering or reagents.

Major Drillingverifiable zero in Salta

A negative finding that is declared instead of omitted: NO evidence was found that it operates in the Salta salt flats unconf. It operates in Argentina, but not a single contract in the province could be verified. Nor was any verifiable Salta activity found for Andes Drilling or Hidroperforaciones.

The gap · how to get in

Buying a drill rig in order to enter is the expensive mistake in this segment, and the numbers say so: there is idle fleet and renewed contracts. The other way round, if you already own equipment the advice does not apply to you and your segments are step 4 — the turnkey well, paid by the flow delivered and not by the meter — and step 6, the installed stock that ages on its own. For whoever has not bought yet, you get in through the interpretation and through the wells nobody is watching. In this order:

1

Hydrogeology consulting without buying a single rig — pumping tests, piezometry, baseline studies and the processing of water permits. It is the lowest-capital door in the whole of Salta mining: three to six professionals and the first invoice without tying up a peso in iron. It is also the only line in the segment where an Argentine professional competes on equal terms without importing anything.

2

Build the track record that later enables your own sign-off — zero capital and it is the long game. A brine resource estimate is not signed off with a degree: it is signed off with membership of a recognized professional association and demonstrable relevant experience, and today that sign-off travels from abroad for 54 projects with an approved environmental assessment. The realistic route is to come in as a field and modeling consultant associated with an international firm. What makes it difficult is the same thing that makes it defensible: once built, that advantage cannot be copied with capital — and it is not put together in two years.

3

Water wells, piezometers and monitoring — the dull, recurring volume, with two concrete advantages. First: it is the line the rule requires, not the one the operator decides. Second, and it is fiscal: drilling a water well is classified as construction and pays considerably less than a mining exploration hole, which has no exemption available. Whoever bills both without separating them ends up paying the expensive line on everything.

4

The turnkey production well with your own interpretation — the segment's high ticket and the step that does require a rig, registration resolved and financial backing. A completed brine well is worth an order of magnitude more per meter than an exploration hole, because you are not selling the meter: you are selling the well that delivers the flow you promised.

5

Processing the water permit for drilling: the one nobody is selling — zero capital and it is the most specific gap in the segment. Drilling needs water, and in Salta water for mining is a contingent concession, with no firm flow, with mining sixth in the order of priority of the Water Code. And there is a door almost nobody is looking at: aquifers at 300 meters or deeper are granted under a special private-initiative regime whose fee may consist of contributing a percentage of the water discovered, deliverable at the wellhead (section 155). The fee in money is de minimis. Nobody is looking at that section, and it is specialized technical processing that is billed by deliverable.

6

Rehabilitation and intervention of existing wells — the smallest and the most underestimated. The installed base grows with every plant that enters operation, it ages on its own, and its maintenance does not depend on anybody approving anything.

Non-addressable

~USD 12-17 M/year (40-55% of the midpoint), with four sources of capture: (a) the professional who signs off the brine resource technical report, today almost 100% from abroad, and who is not contested on price but on reputation before the capital markets that finance the junior companies; (b) the operator's internal geology and hydrogeology - Rio Tinto, First Quantum and Eramet model their own resource in-house; (c) the contracts already awarded and renewed with the two drilling companies with established capacity in the province, which are incumbents with a track record and clients; (d) the operator's own chain (POSCO's Korean suppliers, Ganfeng's Chinese chain) within their own packages. An honest counterpoint that has to be stated because it changes the result: a meter drilled cannot be imported. The rig is imported and the professional who signs off is imported, but the meter is drilled on site and with people from the area. That is why this niche's captive share is smaller than that of catering or reagents, and that is why the addressable market is proportionally larger.

Your market

~USD 13-18 M/year, midpoint ~USD 15 M/year, addressable by a local or national entrant: exploration meters with your own or subcontracted rigs, industrial and camp water wells, piezometers and monitoring wells, pumping tests with interpretation, rehabilitation of existing wells, processing of water permits, and hydrogeology consulting without signing off an international technical report. BEWARE THE 70%, THE 60% AND THE 21.02%: the local purchasing preference of the provincial mining promotion act (70% of the amount contracted and 60% of the payroll) and the supplier plan committed by Sal de Oro II (21.02% of the amount to suppliers, goods and works) enlarge the addressable market and are a real, auditable sales argument, because they are in the text of the acts. But they are commitments over the investment amount, not over this category: they are not a quota, they are not guaranteed demand, and the operator can meet them by buying earthworks and transport, which is where the volume is. Confusing them with demand of your own is the classic error in this calculation.

Your realistic wedge

USD 1.5-4 M/year for ONE entrant over 2 to 3 years, that is between 5 and 13% of the total market. Realistic, staged composition: (year 1) hydrogeology consulting with no investment in equipment - pumping tests, piezometry, processing of water permits and baseline studies, USD 0.3-0.8 M/year with 3 to 6 professionals; it is the lowest-capital door in the whole of Salta mining; (year 1-2) one or two rigs, bought at the bottom of the cycle or subcontracted, for 8,000 to 12,000 meters a year of exploration or for the water well niche, USD 1-2.5 M/year; (year 2-3) the turnkey production well with your own interpretation, 1 to 3 wells a year, USD 0.6-1.5 M/year, with registration in the provincial register already resolved. It is a 25 to 60 person company, replicable in Jujuy and Catamarca, and it is not a unicorn.

This segment's entry barrier is not capital, it is registration: the water authority keeps the register of drilling companies and technical directors, and drilling in Salta without being registered is not an option. The second bottleneck is the one that turns the business around: there is a surplus of fleet, so whoever enters buying rigs enters the part of the market with excess supply and prices under pressure. And the third is about time, not money: the sign-off that is worth something —that of the professional who backs a resource estimate before the capital markets— is built with years of track record and cannot be bought. It is also worth knowing what each thing is before quoting: the hard rock meter and the brine well are two different trades with different rigs, prices and clients, and today every meter contracted in the province is the first kind.
The full map of what you need to get in, laid open:
Capital
Two routes an order of magnitude apart, and the cheap one is the good one. By the consulting route —three to six professionals, test instruments and modeling software— you bill without buying equipment, and it is the lowest-capital door in the province's whole mining sector. By the drilling route you have to buy or subcontract rigs and finance a campaign, and you enter the part of the market where there is idle fleet. An established company in the segment is 25 to 60 people, replicable in the neighboring provinces.
Licensing
The water authority keeps the register of drilling companies and technical directors, and it is a requirement, not a formality. For the line that leaves the most margin you need something other than a license: membership of a recognized professional association plus demonstrable relevant experience, which is what qualifies you to sign off a resource estimate. To count as local payroll, the provincial mining act also requires professionals and technicians licensed with the province's association.
Regime
The four local supplier filters: actual or registered address and tax address in Salta, at least 80% of the payroll with an actual address here and —if it is a legal entity— more than half the capital in partners domiciled in the province. The door for the outsider is a joint venture with a Salta partner from 30%. And here the tax classification splits three ways: the water well is construction, the exploration hole is a mining support service with no permanent exemption, and hydrogeology is professional activity — three lines and two different rates inside the same company.
Altitude
The work is between 3,500 and 4,100 meters above sea level, in campaign and with a crew on site. Consulting, by contrast, is done from the city with short field campaigns, and that is another of the reasons it is the most accessible door. There is no Argentine legislation setting medical fitness criteria above three thousand five hundred meters, so it is a cost of medical exams and turnover, and it is a risk no rule covers.
⌛ In progress The execution playbook —which junior and which operator to call on first, how to put together the partnership with an international firm to build the sign-off track record, and how to separate the tax classification of the three lines inside a single company— is something we are building. Tell us this niche interests you and we will get in touch.
When you get paid, and what blocks it
It is paid today, and it is being paid this week. That is this niche's difference from all the others in the province: there is no investment decision to wait for. Argenta Silver has two rigs turning at El Quevar; AbraSilver started its phase VI on 13-Jan-2026 declaring it fully financed; Fortuna Mining has 3.7 million dollars approved in its 2026 exploration budget, written in its own release. And the four operating lithium plants pay for well replacement, monitoring and water reporting every month, with or without new construction.Commercial model, ordered by ease of entry: (1) subcontracting a crew or a service to a driller that already has the contract (shifts, rig maintenance, sampling, core logging): minimum friction and it does not require qualifying as a local supplier, because the client is the supplier and not the mine. (2) Hydrogeology consulting on fees, by the hour or by deliverable and with an advance: no investment in equipment, no heavy homologation, it is the cheapest door in the whole of Salta mining. (3) Drilling contract per meter, with a standby and mobilization day rate, invoiced monthly against a progress sheet certified by the client's geologist: it is the segment standard and it leaves the risk of program continuity on the client's side. (4) Completed well by milestones (drilling, casing, development, approved pumping test): the highest margin and the highest technical risk, because a well that does not deliver flow is redone at the driller's expense.The real entry bottleneck, in the order of what actually stops you:(1) registration in the Provincial Register of drilling companies and technical directors, at the Water Resources Secretariat: it is not optional and it requires a licensed technical director, who is a person and not a piece of paper.(2) Operator homologation - health and safety management, workers' compensation cover with altitude scope, surety insurance: it is a process parallel to and independent of the provincial register, and there is no consolidated public source of what each operator requires.(3) Equipment capital: a diamond drill rig fit for the puna with its support costs of the order of 0.8 to 1.5 million dollars [declared assumption, no source], plus spares and downhole tooling; with an idle fleet in the market, the cheap route is to rent or buy used, not to buy new.(4) Working capital: crew payroll and consumables against payment terms that are not public data in Salta, with a concrete court precedent of contractors claiming payment.(5) Altitude: the crew is the one working highest in the whole chain, and the regulatory vacuum that leaves open is in the gap map. Here it weighs as cash: with no rule setting the standard, each company defines its own requirement, and the pre-employment exam, the turnover and the replacement are paid before the first meter is billed.(6) Technical report sign-off, only for the hydrogeology segment: membership of a recognized professional association and demonstrable relevant experience. It is the slowest bottleneck of all and it cannot be bought.Time to the first invoice estim: 1 to 3 months for hydrogeology consulting or the processing of water permits by direct engagement; 3 to 6 months for subcontracting a crew or a service to a driller that already has the contract; 8 to 14 months for a drilling contract of your own with a rig, with the provincial registration and the homologation resolved; 12 to 20 months for a brine production well with responsibility over the flow, which requires a track record you can show; 24 to 48 months to sign off resource technical reports under your own name, because there it is the experience clock that governs and not the filing one.
Spillover
effect
For the people

It is the niche with the best wage per job and the lowest employment per dollar billed in the whole chain, and both things have to be said together. La lectura completa para el que busca trabajo, en la hoja de este nicho para la gente →

How we
calculate it
Annualization window: Salta's COMMON one, 2026 → 2029 (~3.5 years). It is the same one used by the province's other niches and follows the legal deadlines of the RIGI resolutions, not an editorial choice: that is why the province's TAMs can be added up and compared with one another. It comes from the shared table of provincial magnitudes.Units per year x unit price, in three blocks calculated separately because they are three different markets that are usually conflated: (a) exploration drill holes, which is the one under contract today; (b) brine and water production wells, which arrives with every plant that enters operation and is recurring; (c) hydrogeology, aquifer modeling and sign-off of the resource estimate, low volume and very high margin. Window 2026-2029 (~3.5 years), the same one used by the province's other niches, because it comes from the legal investment deadlines of the resolutions already published (Rincón 30-Jun-2029, Sal de Oro II 31-Jul-2029) and so the results can be added and compared with one another.What this number includes — Sal de Oro: this calculation uses Sal de Oro (POSCO) in full, on the Salta side, by a scoping decision of the project: a services market measures demand, and that demand falls where the plant (General Güemes) and the registered address of the titleholding company (city of Salta) are, both of them in Salta and undisputed; the 50/50 split of the agreement with Catamarca splits rent over a border area, which is a different object. And it has to be said that this is the niche where that decision is most arguable: in catering the service is provided where the canteen is, but the brine well is physically drilled inside the cadastral overlap area. It is applied all the same because the scope is demand for services, NOT tax attribution or royalties, but the discomfort is declared instead of glossed over. Catamarca is NOT touched, since it is already published, and this calculation counts only demand that falls in Salta: the wells of the well field in the center of the Salar del Hombre Muerto, which are under Catamarca jurisdiction, are left out.Which portfolio was used: it is aggregated by declared total investment, not by the computable amount of the incentive regime. Sal de Oro II declares USD 547 M of investment and USD 207,936,427.20 of computable amount, and the computable amount is the base of the tax benefit, not of the spending on services. Only the firm ring is used (projects with an approved resolution and a legal deadline: Rincón USD 2,744 M + Diablillos USD 764 M + Sal de Oro II USD 547 M = USD 4,055 M). Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes (~USD 3,000 M, application filed and unresolved) and Taca Taca (USD 5,250 M, announced with no public evidence of an application filed) are declared and not added. An important clarification: unlike the other niches, here capex is NOT the driver of the calculation. Exploration drilling is paid for out of the junior companies' capital markets, not out of construction capex, and that is exactly why this niche does not depend on any final investment decision.The assumption that governs the number: the province has no published tariff for this service, in either of its two contract forms. It is a gap that the earlier research had already declared unresolvable with open sources, and this piece of work NARROWED it without closing it, with two real anchors and an explicit assumption that joins them:- Anchor 1, the good one and from Salta: Fortuna Mining's own release of 23-Apr-2026 says verbatim that the 2026 exploration budget for Lindero is USD 3.7 million and includes approximately 11,000 meters of drilling at Arizaro. With the Lindero infill (~6,000 m) included it would be 17,000 m. The sentence does say those 11,000 meters are AT ARIZARO; what it does not say is how many additional meters are drilled at Lindero itself or whether they come out of the same budget, and out of that ambiguity -not the other one- come TWO readings: USD 3.7 M / 17,000 m = USD 218 per meter, or USD 3.7 M / 11,000 m = USD 336 per meter. In both cases it is an all-inclusive budget (drilling, laboratory assays, geology, logistics and camp) over an operating mine, that is, with road, camp and infrastructure already amortized.- Anchor 2, from Catamarca: a recommended program of 7,950 m in 15 drill holes within a budget of USD 3.3 M, that is some USD 415 per meter, but that budget also includes systematic geophysics and geochemical sampling, so it OVERSTATES the pure meter drilled.- Assumption, and it is the only link in the whole chain with no source: the drilling contract is 50-70% of the exploration budget; the rest is assays, geology, logistics and studies.- Result: exploration drilling tariff = USD 110-290 PER METER, midpoint USD 200/m. It is NOT an observed price.Price of the completed well: it is inherited from a technical study of the same salt flat system, not invented. The per-well unit prices come from the technical report of a brine project in the Salar del Hombre Muerto (on the Catamarca side, the same salt flat Salta shares) and from its preliminary economic assessment, already opened in primary sources and published by us for Catamarca. They are cited as a declared reference, not as Salta data: brine production well (telescoped drilling, 10-inch casing, gravel pack, seal, development, logging and a 36 to 72 hour pumping test) USD 0.60-0.87 M per well, equivalent to USD 2,150-3,100 per meter of completed well over an average depth of 280 m; brine exploration or observation well USD 0.14-0.24 M; piezometer or monitoring well in a salt flat USD 0.06-0.15 M; 8 to 10 inch raw water well for 20-40 liters per second USD 0.12-0.40 M; well intervention or rehabilitation USD 0.03-0.08 M.Block A - exploration drill holes (the one billed today): USD 7.1-27.1 M/year, midpoint ~15.7.A1, metallic hard rock: El Quevar (silver) 25,000 to 45,000 m + Fortuna at Arizaro and Lindero (gold) 17,000 m + Diablillos phase VI (silver and gold) 15,000 m = 57,000 to 77,000 m documented. Annualized over the window, 57,000-77,000 m/year is taken, midpoint 67,000: the floor is the conservative reading of El Quevar and captures the risk that the 2026 campaigns are not repeated with lithium depressed; the ceiling is the meters actually documented. Meters are NOT added for uncounted projects: brine drilling is billed in full in block A2 and adding it here as well would count it twice. At USD 110-290/m that gives USD 6.3-22.3 M/year, midpoint 13.4.A2, brine exploration and sampling: 6 to 20 wells a year (midpoint 12, assumed quantity) at USD 0.14-0.24 M per well = USD 0.8-4.8 M/year, midpoint 2.3. Universe: 54 advanced exploration projects with an approved environmental assessment. Physical scale reference: a junior company reported 14 diamond drill holes for 4,823.2 meters and one 470-meter production well in a single project at Salar del Rincón.Block B - brine and water production wells (the recurring one): USD 3.5-18.5 M/year, midpoint ~8.4.B1, new and replacement brine production wells (well field for the Rincón expansion from 3,000 to 60,000 t/year, Sal de Oro II, and replacement of the installed stock of the four operating plants): 4 to 10 wells a year, midpoint 6, at USD 0.60-0.87 M = USD 2.4-8.7 M/year, midpoint 4.4. The 5 to 8% annual replacement rate is assumed, the same one used by the Catamarca calculation.B2, industrial and camp water wells: 3 to 10 a year, midpoint 6, at USD 0.12-0.40 M = USD 0.4-4.0 M/year, midpoint 1.6. Verified universe: 7 water wells with a concession published in the province's Official Gazette (Mariana 1, Pastos Grandes 1, Sal de Oro 1, Rincón 4 applied for).B3, piezometers and monitoring wells: 8 to 25 a year, midpoint 15, at USD 0.06-0.15 M = USD 0.5-3.8 M/year, midpoint 1.6. It is not invented demand: section 149 of Salta's Water Code has required since 1999 that every borehole in the province carry a flow control device approved by the authority, and the royalty protocol of the Sal de Oro agreement additionally allows piezometers and observation wells to be required.B4, intervention and rehabilitation of existing wells: 8 to 25 a year, midpoint 15, at USD 0.03-0.08 M = USD 0.2-2.0 M/year, midpoint 0.8.Block C - hydrogeology, modeling and sign-off of the technical report: USD 1.6-11.1 M/year, midpoint ~4.7.C1, hydrogeological characterization plus numerical flow model plus signed-off brine resource estimate (drainable porosity, specific yield, long-duration pumping tests): 8 to 18 projects a year, midpoint 13, at USD 0.12-0.45 M = USD 1.0-8.1 M/year, midpoint 3.3. Over a universe of 54 advanced exploration projects, it is assumed that between 15 and 33% produce a deliverable each year.C2, operational hydrogeology of the sites already running (monitoring network, piezometry, reporting to the State, processing and renewal of water concessions): 6 to 10 sites at USD 0.10-0.30 M = USD 0.6-3.0 M/year, midpoint 1.4.This block's fees are a pure assumption: there is no rate card, no public contract and no reference fee for hydrogeology consulting in Argentina.Two control readings, and it has to be said what each one proves. (1) Implicit day rate: block A1 at its midpoint, USD 14.2 M, spread over the 7.6 rigs the throughput requires, gives USD 1.87 M per rig-year, that is USD 5,100 per calendar day or USD 7,500-8,500 per effective operating day. It is the first day rate reference this body of work can publish, and it is worth being honest about what it is: it comes from DIVIDING our own result by our own number of rigs, so it is NOT an independent verification — it is the same calculation written backwards (tariff per meter multiplied by meters per rig-year). Its scope is declared in the note of that variable, which is where the tariff is published. (2) Rigs required against installed fleet: the pace observed at El Quevar (more than 22,000 m in 68 holes with two rigs since May 2025, some 9,400 m per rig-year) implies that the 71,000 m of the midpoint require some 7.6 active rigs, against the 12 declared by a single Salta drilling company and at least five other companies based in the province. With those two numbers alone utilization would be around 63%, and it falls as the rigs of the other five are counted, which are not published. The mining suppliers' chamber declared its member companies as a whole at around 40% of their capacity in May 2025, but that is employment across the whole supplier sector and not drilling rig utilization: it points the same way, it does not measure the same thing. The conclusion the two together sustain is qualitative and it is enough: there are rigs to spare and not enough work.The two tax rates, because here there is not just one and that changes the cost structure. This niche lives across TWO different lines of the Salta Revenue Office schedule, and whoever bills both and does not separate them ends up paying the more expensive one on everything: drilling a water well is classified under code 422100, construction, and pays 2.50% turnover tax; a mining exploration drill hole is a mining support service, code 99000, and pays 3.60% with no permanent exemption; consulting hydrogeology is professional, scientific and technical activity, codes 749009 and 711, and also pays 3.60%. Meanwhile mining extraction pays 0.75% and even 0% with an exemption certificate: it is 4.8 times the mine's rate, and every service provider carries it in its cost structure.What was not used, and it is deliberate. The 1.39 dollars per tonne milled line for drilling and blasting from the Diablillos feasibility study was not used even once: that is mine blast drilling, that is, production blast holes for shooting, and it has nothing to do with exploration drilling or brine wells. Using it as the price of the meter drilled would be an error of category, not an approximation. Nor were the more than 30,000 meters of brine wells of a Salta drilling company or the nearly 100,000 meters of Diablillos annualized: they are the historical total of their entire track record, not annual flow, and mixing them with the 2026 table would multiply the market by an invented factor.No double counting with the neighboring niches. Every meter drilled generates samples: this calculation counts core recovery at the rig (cutting, boxing, chain of custody), which is part of the drilling contract, and excludes sample preparation and assaying, which belong to the laboratory market; if they were added, the exploration block would grow by between 25 and 40%. The flowmeter, the telemetry and the per-well grade certification are metrology and are left out; what does come in here is drilling the piezometer and running the pumping test. Also left out are the crew's camp and food, rig mobilization and water haulage, and the rig's generator, all already quantified in their own markets.The 61.4% of mining over exports is always quoted with its date as the January-April 2026 cumulative; this calculation does not use it as an input but respects it where it appears.

Concentration Three layers with opposite structures, and the entrant who does not separate them picks the wrong business.Segment 1 - the exploration meter: fragmented, with an idle fleet and the buying power on the client's side. There is no public register of awards, so any concentration index would be invented. What can be stated with our own numbers: the province's documented throughput requires some 7 to 8 active rigs, and a single Salta company declares 12. With six drilling companies identified as based in the province and demand below installed capacity, the price is set by the buyer. It is the worst point in the cycle to enter buying new equipment, and the best to buy parked equipment.Segment 2 - the brine production well: concentrated in two names and protected by a state register. Hidrotec and AGV Falcon are the two with established capacity. The barrier is not mainly capital: it is compulsory registration in the provincial register of drilling companies and technical directors, plus the fact that a badly completed production well is paid for with the whole well field. Here the margin is higher, the contract lasts longer and supplier turnover is much lower than in exploration.Segment 3 - hydrogeology and technical report sign-off: an almost imported monopoly, and it is the only scarcity in the niche that survives verification. A single confirmed Salta consultancy against 54 advanced exploration projects with an approved environmental assessment. The professionals who sign off brine resource estimates are from abroad and bill in dollars from abroad. It is the concentrated segment, the one with the highest value per hour, and the one an Argentine entrant can contest without buying a single rig.What should not be sold as a gap, said head-on: 'there are no drilling companies in Salta' is false, and it is the symmetric error of saying the province has no laboratories. There are at least six companies with a declared base and one of them alone has 12 rigs. This niche's gap is not one of existence: it is one of specialty.

Who really pays?

There are four clients with four budgets, and the one who pays first is not the one you would imagine: here the exploration money comes from the capital markets, not from the construction budget.

If you sellExploration meters, under a campaign contract
The junior company that has just raised capital verif Apr 23, 2026

It is the door being paid for this season and the one that waits for no investment decision: a miner published in its own release an exploration budget of USD 3.7 M for the year, with some 11,000 meters in one of its projects. The client decides not by capex but by cash raised, so the cycle is set by the metal price and not by construction. The counterpoint: it is the segment with a surplus of fleet, and that is why the price is under pressure.

If you sellIndustrial and camp water well, turnkey
The operator that needs the concession before the well verif Jun 21, 2022

Here the sale starts before drilling: with no public water use concession there is no well. The universe is small, verifiable and can be read in the province's Official Gazette — there are seven water wells with a concession or application published among the lithium projects. It is the segment's cheapest line for tax purposes, because drilling a water well is classified as construction and not as a mining support service.

If you sellPiezometers, monitoring network and pumping tests
The titleholder of any borehole in the province, mining or not verif in force since 1999

It is the dullest door and the only one whose demand is created by a rule and not by a purchasing decision. The Water Code has required since 1999 that all boreholes carry a device approved by the authority to control the flow, and its section 148 allows pumping tests and water samples to be ordered at any time: that is the legal trigger for measurement that repeats. The caveat that belongs here: that chapter deals with groundwater, so extending it to brine wells —which are a mining resource and not a water resource— is a reading of ours and not the text.

If you sellHydrogeological model and sign-off of the resource estimate
The board and the capital markets that finance it thesis

The highest-margin door, the slowest and the one not won on price but on reputation: whoever buys it is not the procurement manager, it is the person who needs a credible third party to back the resource before their investors. Today that sign-off travels from abroad for 54 advanced exploration projects, and only one Salta hydrogeology consultancy could be identified. It is declared as a reading of the context: there is no observed contract or published reference fee in the country.

Confusing the doors means entering through the most expensive one: to the junior you sell meters at a market price with excess supply, to the operator you sell a well that delivers the flow promised, to the borehole's titleholder you sell complying with an obligation they already have, and to the board you sell a sign-off their investor will accept. The first is paid today; the last is the one that cannot be copied.

When the window opens

It is not 'what breaks it': it is the dashboard for knowing when there is a campaign. In this niche the warning does not arrive through the Official Gazette but through the companies' own releases, which publish their exploration budget before contracting a single meter.

Leading indicator verif Apr 23, 2026
Exploration budget announced by the issuers for the year · USD 3.7 M approved by a single miner for 2026

It is the only indicator in the niche that runs ahead of the contract: the junior raises capital, announces its budget and only then goes out to contract meters, so whoever reads the releases knows the throughput before the market does. And it gives the only price reference available in the province — that budget includes some 11,000 meters in one of the projects, which puts the all-inclusive meter between 218 and 336 dollars depending on how the sentence is read. It is the client's budget, not the supplier's tariff, and that is how it has to be used: it is good for sizing the campaign, not for quoting against it.

Releases and material events from the operators and juniors with projects in Salta, published continuously, plus the technical reports when they are issued

Three companion signals. The price of the metal that finances the campaign: since here the client pays with cash raised and not with a construction budget, the cycle runs ahead and falls behind with the capital markets, not with construction — and that cuts both ways, because it is what makes the niche independent of any investment decision and also what makes it the most volatile of the nine. The 132 projects with an approved environmental assessment in the province, of which 54 are advanced exploration: it is the funnel from which all future demand for interpretation comes, and it is heavily concentrated in two salt flats. And the utilization of the installed fleet: while there are rigs to spare, the price per meter does not recover — it is the signal that says whether it is worth buying a machine or carrying on subcontracting it.

The watchlist · what signals the game has changed
Lithium price and junior company financing (continuous exposure, effect in 1 or 2 quarters)

It is the niche's structural killer and it does not work the way it does in the rest of the chain: exploration is the first line a junior company cuts, and it is paid for out of the capital markets, not out of construction capex. The El Quevar program — 45,000 meters on its high reading, the one that appears in press coverage and not in an issuer release, whose February and April filings say 25,000 verif the four filings opened — is funded by a 23 million Canadian dollar placement closed on 22-Jan-2026 verif issuer release opened, not by a big miner's investment decision. The province already has the case: the 2,000 tonne-per-year Rincón Lithium plant (Argosy / Puna Mining) was listed as suspended as of the Aug-2026 cutoff prob our own survey of the province's plants; there is no operator statement or administrative act backing it, against the backdrop of the roughly 80% fall in the lithium price. A demobilized rig bills zero the following month: there is no order book to cushion it.

The two live figures at El Quevar (measurable now, watched release by release)

The province's largest program circulates with two values: 25,000 meters published by the issuer itself in its February and April 2026 releases verif three releases opened and 45,000 meters that appear in the July 2026 press coverage, with no release of the issuer's own confirming them verif article opened. With two active rigs and more than 22,000 meters in 68 holes since May 2025 verif same article opened — which works out at some 9,400 meters per rig-year estim our own calculation over that article; and it understates productivity, because the puna campaign is seasonal and the rig does not drill twelve months a year —, the 45,000 meters require two or three more rigs, or more than one season estim our own calculation. The difference between the two readings is 26% of the whole province's throughput estim our own calculation: if the low figure holds, the exploration market loses around 4 million dollars a year off its midpoint estim our own calculation.

Stages with no final investment decision (indeterminate timing)

Taca Taca, with 5,250 million dollars announced verif technical report from the title holder, has no public evidence of having filed its application to the large-investment incentive regime —the title holder stated in Feb-2026 that it was preparing to file, and the official portal does not publish the detail of projects under evaluation, so non-filing cannot be verified there unconf status of the filing. Diablillos has its final investment decision only in the second quarter of 2027 prob feasibility study. Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes, at around 3,000 million dollars, has been filed since 28-Feb-2026 and still had no published resolution as of the Aug-2026 cutoff prob sector press. None of that is added into this calculation, and anyone who sizes a fleet against those projects goes broke waiting.

Turnover tax rate: a margin killer, not a demand killer, and here there are TWO (structural)

A mining exploration drill hole is a mining support service, code 99000, and pays 3.60% with no permanent exemption verif activity schedule of Salta's Revenue Office. A water well is construction, code 422100, and pays 2.50% verif ídem. Consulting hydrogeology is professional, scientific and technical activity, and pays 3.60% verif ídem. Meanwhile mining extraction pays 0.75% and even 0% with an exemption certificate verif ídem: it is 4.8 times the mine's rate. A practical consequence that is not minor: whoever bills water drilling and mining drill holes without separating the classification ends up paying 3.60% on everything, and gives away 1.1 points of gross billing on the water portion estim our own calculation: the difference between the two rates in the schedule. In a thin-margin business, that is structure, not nuance.

Water permit, not water price (structural, and it is the most common reading error)

The mining water concession in Salta is contingent, with no firm flow, and mining is SIXTH in the order of priority of the Water Code verif text of the act opened. Every borehole must carry an approved flow control device since 1999 verif section 149 of the same code. After publication for 5 days, 30 working days run for third-party objections verif section 309. And aquifers at 300 meters or deeper are granted under a special regime whose fee may consist of contributing a percentage of the water discovered, deliverable at the wellhead verif section 155. The fee in money is de minimis: for the four operations with a published concession it adds up to the order of 129,000 dollars a year in total estim our own calculation over the annual fee in pesos of the published concessions, converted at an assumed and unverified exchange rate: the order of magnitude holds, the exact figure does not. What bites is the permit, not the price.

Compulsory provincial register of drilling companies (permanent)

The Water Resources Secretariat keeps the register of drilling companies and technical directors verif the agency's service charter approved by delegated Resolución 525 D/25. Drilling in Salta without being registered is not an option. It cuts both ways: it is the barrier that holds back the entrant and the one that protects whoever is already inside.

Collection risk and non-public payment terms (active, with a concrete precedent)

A civil and commercial court in Salta ordered in July 2026 an attachment and account freeze against a lithium operator over claims by Salta contractors, and it was reported that other companies in the province were preparing similar suits prob trade press. The mining companies' payment terms in Salta are not public data, and the earlier research already declared them probably the most valuable and most absent datum in the segment. For a drilling company, which pays crew and consumables every month against monthly certifications, that is the real economic risk.

Suspension of hydrogeological studies over indigenous consultation objections (live, unconfirmed)

A version circulates that we could not trace back to its original publication or check against a source of our own: that the World Bank supposedly suspended hydrogeological studies requested by provincial governments for lithium exploration, over objections tied to consultation with communities unconf there is no statement from the agency nor any act backing it — we do not treat it as having happened. It is a risk aimed straight at the hydrogeology segment, the highest-margin one in the niche. The version could not be confirmed against a source of our own and is declared pending.

Salinas Grandes amparo action before the Supreme Court (live since October 2025)

The Supreme Court took original jurisdiction on 17-Oct-2025 in the amparo brought by the communities of the Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Guayatayoc basin, with an injunction suspending permits that was still awaiting resolution as of the Aug-2026 cutoff prob national press and a communication from the co-plaintiff organization. The community protocol for that basin states in its own text that it covers the departments of La Poma and Los Andes in Salta verif protocol text opened. It does not touch the salt flats of the firm ring today, which are in other basins, but it is the only front with the capacity to halt permits in the province.

Seasonality and lack of continuity (structural, and it is what defines the trade)

Puna drilling is seasonal: the province's largest campaign is literally called the summer program verif issuer release opened. A demobilized crew does not get paid. The niche pays better per job than the average of the Salta mining chain and offers worse continuity: both things are true and both have to be said.

End of the construction window in 2029 (a certainty, but here it hits less than in any other niche)

The legal investment deadlines expire in 2029 (30-Jun-2029 and 31-Jul-2029 depending on the project) verif resolutions published in the Official Gazette. It is the niche with the smallest cliff of the whole set: the production well market grows with every plant that enters operation, and the exploration one does not depend on construction but on junior financing. What does switch off in 2029 is geotechnical drilling for construction, which this calculation did not even quantify and which is why the result is understated on that side.

How the number is built · and how fresh each data point is

Units per year multiplied by unit price, calculated separately in three blocks because they are three markets with different clients. Unlike the province's other niches, here construction capex is not the driver: exploration is financed by the junior companies' capital markets, and that is exactly why this market does not depend on any final investment decision.

57,000 to 77,000 meters of exploration a year × USD 110 to 290 per meter + 20 to 60 wells and piezometers a year at their unit price by type + 14 to 28 hydrogeology deliverables a year=The published midpoint is ~USD 29 M/year and the band runs from 12 to 57. It is almost five times as wide between floor and ceiling, and it is not sloppy drafting: it multiplies two uncertainties that were not covered up — there is no published unit price for the service in the province, and the figures for contracted meters come from corporate releases, with the largest of the three declared at two different values by the issuer itself.
Exploration meters contracted per year57,000-77,000 m (midpoint ~67,000)live data
The firmest input and at the same time the one that explains half the band. The largest program has two live figures from the same issuer: its releases at the start of the year declare one and the mid-year coverage declares almost double. At the measured pace of that same project —some 9,400 meters per rig a year— the high figure requires two or three more rigs, or more than one season. The difference between the two readings is 26% of the whole province's throughput, so it is published as a band and not as a starting value.
Price of the meter drilledUSD 110-290 per meter (midpoint ~200)live data
It is not an observed price, and it has to be said that way: there is no public drilling tariff in Salta. It was built up from a client's exploration budget —not from a driller's tariff— and that is why it carries the only link in the whole chain with no source: what fraction of that budget is the drilling contract and what fraction is assays, geology and logistics.
Price of the completed brine wellUSD 0.60-0.87 M per wellannual review
Telescoped drilling, casing, gravel pack, seal, development, logging and a 36 to 72 hour pumping test. It is inherited from a technical report of the same salt flat system —on the Catamarca side— already opened in a primary source, and it is cited as a declared reference, not as Salta data. Over an average depth of 280 meters it works out an order of magnitude more expensive per meter than the exploration hole: they are two different trades.
Active rigs the throughput requires~7.6 rigs, against a larger fleetlive data
It is the number that turns the niche's story around. It comes from the pace observed in the province's most documented program. Against it, a single Salta drilling company declares twelve rigs and there are at least five more companies based here whose fleet is not published. The utilization that follows is around 63% and falls as the others are counted. The conclusion it sustains is qualitative and it is enough: there are rigs to spare and not enough work — the gap is not the machine.
Implicit rig day rate~USD 5,100 per calendar dayannual review
A reader from the segment quotes by the day and not only by the meter, and this is the first day rate reference this body of work can publish: the exploration block at its midpoint, spread over the rigs the throughput requires, gives of the order of USD 1.87 M per rig per year — that is ~USD 5,100 per calendar day and USD 7,500 to 8,500 per effective operating day. It matters because the segment standard is a contract per meter with a standby and mobilization day rate, and that is precisely the line that gets negotiated. Its limit, said head-on: it comes from dividing our own result by our own number of rigs, so it is not an independent verification — it is the same calculation written backwards. It lets a reader from the segment judge whether the order of magnitude is credible; it confirms nothing on its own.

Robustness check against the sister niche in Catamarca, which is the only direct comparable: that niche publishes USD 4-18 M/year (midpoint ~10) and covers only brine and water wells. The comparable block here —block B— comes out at a midpoint of USD 8.4 M, that is below the neighbor, and that despite Salta having four plants in operation and two under construction: it is deliberately calculated on the conservative side. The entire difference in scale between the two headlines (~29 against ~10) is put there by blocks A and C, which Catamarca did not quantify — it is not that we price the same market higher, it is that we measure two more blocks.

The number rests on a few variables. The formula shows how it moves when each one changes; and each variable carries its freshness seal — how often it is worth revisiting. estim

How we validate this figure

How solid the number is estim

The firmest datum on the page is not a price: it is the meters actually contracted, and they come from the issuers' own releases, not from estimates of ours. And that exercise produced the finding that reordered the niche: the meters contracted for this year are 100% metallic hard rock —silver and gold— and not one meter is brine. That separates two markets that had been treated as one: the meter drilled today uses diamond core in rock, with a different rig, a different price and a different client from the brine well. The assumption that governs the number is declared without hedging: there is no public drilling tariff in Salta, neither a price per meter nor a rig day rate. It was narrowed without being closed, with two real anchors and an explicit assumption that joins them. The good one, from Salta, is the exploration budget published by a miner in its own release, which gives between 218 and 336 dollars per meter *all inclusive* depending on which of the two readings of the sentence you take —and both readings are published, instead of choosing the comfortable one—. The second comes from Catamarca and overstates the pure meter, because its budget also includes geophysics and geochemical sampling. There is only one link with no source and it is named: what fraction of the exploration budget is the drilling contract. The prices per completed well were not invented: they are inherited from the technical report of a project in the same salt flat system, already opened in a primary source, and they are cited as a declared reference and not as Salta data. Two things were deliberately left out, because using them would have inflated the market without saying so: the drilling and blasting line of a feasibility study —which is blast holes for shooting and not exploration, that is, an error of category and not an approximation— and the historical accumulated meters of two operators, which are an entire track record and not one year's flow. And one honest note about the consistency check: the day rate that can be published comes from dividing our own result by our own number of rigs, so it lets a reader from the segment judge the order of magnitude, and it confirms nothing on its own.

How to cite this figure: Despegue (2026). High-altitude drilling, brine wells and hydrogeology in the Salta puna · Salta. despegueargentina.com/en/salta/perforacion-pozos-salmuera-hidrogeologia · terms of use

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Ignacio Aredez
Ignacio Aredez· Chief analyst
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How to read the seals →   verif primary source · prob primary source pending · unconf a source said it · estim our own calculation · thesis our reading · the date belongs to the datum, at the precision its source allows
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