Rio Tinto Plans US$2.7 Billion Lithium Project in Salta
Rio Tinto lithium plan for Argentina: the Rincón project in Salta is set to cost US$2.7 billion, make 50,000 tonnes a year and open its first line in 2028. The post Rio Tinto Plans US$2.7 Billion Lithium Project in Salta appeared first on The Rio Times .
The Rio Tinto lithium project at Rincón, in Argentina’s Salta province, is to cost US$2.7 billion and produce 50,000 tonnes a year. Governor Gustavo Sáenz gave the figures on Friday 2 October after meeting company executives in Paris.
The project is not new, but the meeting set out a clearer timetable and a job count. The first of two production lines is due to start in 2028, El Tribuno and the Salta outlet Aries reported.
Sáenz met Jérôme Pécresse, who runs Rio Tinto’s aluminium and lithium business, and business development manager Joey Kairala. The talks took place during Argentina Week, a promotion event in the French capital.
According to both reports, Rincón will make battery-grade lithium carbonate in two lines of 25,000 tonnes each. That chemical is the form of lithium most widely sold to battery makers.
The jobs figures are the main new detail. Construction currently employs 255 people directly and about 2,400 indirectly, the reports said.
Indirect employment is expected to pass 4,000 between April and July 2027. Once running, the plant should employ around 600 people directly.
Rio Tinto agreed to buy Rincón in 2021. In May 2025 it became the first mining project approved under the RIGI, the national incentive scheme for large investments, Cadena 3 reported at the time.
Salta’s mining authority then issued the environmental impact declaration in August 2025, after a public hearing and consultation with Indigenous communities. In March 2026, Reporte Minero said Rincón shipped its first 200 tonnes of lithium carbonate to Shanghai.
Sáenz framed the plan as a test of whether mining reaches local people. “We want each investment to translate into employment, growth of local suppliers, infrastructure and new opportunities,” he said, as quoted by Aries.
Salta already hosts several large lithium developments, including Ganfeng’s projects. President Javier Milei took provincial governors to Argentina Week to court investors.
Lithium prices were low when the permit was granted in 2025, LM Neuquén Más Energía noted. A plant starting in 2028 will sell into whatever market exists then.
The stated figures also vary. In March, Rio Tinto put the cost at US$2.5 billion and said it plans to build for about 60,000 tonnes a year.
Salta’s 2025 environmental permit covers 50,000 tonnes, matching Friday’s figure. The US$2.7 billion is the sum approved under the RIGI in 2025.
Rio Tinto had not issued its own statement on the Paris meeting by Friday afternoon. The figures so far come from the provincial side, as reported by El Tribuno and Aries.
In March, Rio Tinto secured US$1.175 billion in loans from four lenders, including the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank’s private-sector arm. Whether the new timetable changes that funding plan has not been disclosed.
It is also unclear how many of the 600 permanent jobs will go to Salta residents. Earlier Argentine coverage set out the wider context in Milei Takes Governors to Paris to Trade Deals for an End to Primaries and Argentina Lithium: China’s Ganfeng Locks In a Three-Project Salta Megadevelopment .
Sources: El Tribuno (2 Oct 2026); Aries (2 Oct 2026); Cadena 3 (20 May 2025); LM Neuquén Más Energía (28 Aug 2025); Reporte Minero (10 Mar 2026); Rio Tinto (11 Mar 2026).
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