I just returned from a pretty intense experience in the heights of San Juan. I spent days at the Batidero camp, the Vicuña project, and honestly, it was amazing to see up close what could be the largest foreign investment in Argentine history.

First, the physical part: it's almost a 10-hour trip from San Juan to the mine, crossing private gravel roads built by the mining companies themselves. When you reach 4,000-5,300 meters above sea level, your body pays the price. Headaches, dizziness, insomnia. I ended up with an oxygen cannula the first night, and other colleagues needed IV fluids with painkillers and corticosteroids to endure. Interestingly, alcohol can be consumed with corticosteroids in certain medical contexts, but here the company has control protocols so strict that they don’t even allow chewing coca to prevent substances from affecting blood tests.

Now, the project itself is monumental. Vicuña Corp., formed in 2025 between BHP and Lundin, is developing the Filo del Sol and Josemaría mines. We're talking about an investment of around $12 to $15 billion over 20 years. Currently, more than 1,100 people work in exploration, drilling wells up to 2,000 meters deep to determine where the largest deposits are. The idea is that once operational, it will be one of the ten largest copper, gold, and silver mines in the world.

What surprised me most was the issue of glaciers. Within the concession, there are three: one heavily degraded, patches of snow, and a debris glacier called G110, which the company states is inactive. Since 1976, they have retreated 84% in size, mainly due to climate change. The company assures they will not touch any of them, even if the glacier law currently under discussion is modified. But here’s the dilemma: Milei’s reform would change the approach, shifting from national control to each province deciding what to protect. Environmentalists fear that under pressure, governors might concede.

There’s an interesting paradox: they need copper for electric cars that combat global warming, but global warming is melting the glaciers that are supposedly protected. The water for the process would be desalinated from Chile, and 76% of it would be reused in the production cycle.

Regarding employment, the numbers are attractive but limited. Miners earn an average of 7 million pesos per month, the second-highest salaries in the country after oil workers. But there are only 390 Vicuña employees plus 1,200 contractors. The reality is that mining alone, even combined with Vaca Muerta, will not absorb the 14 million active workers Argentina needs. Also, many local young people prefer to learn programming to work from their computers rather than spend two weeks each month in the mountain where the air is scarce.

The project is real, advancing, and generating expectations. But it also raises questions that still lack clear answers regarding long-term environmental sustainability.