Argentina Natural Resources Explained 2026

GUIDES · ARGENTINA

Argentina resources run from Vaca Muerta shale oil and Andean lithium to gold, Pampas grain, glaciers, forests and South Atlantic fish. Since 2024 a law called the RIGI has offered large investors fixed tax and currency rules for decades.

For US readers, the sector moves New York-listed stocks, battery supply chains and a long legal fight over the oil company YPF.

Why Argentina Resources Matter Now

Energy and mining have turned a chronic weak spot into a source of dollars. INDEC trade data show an energy trade surplus of US$7.834 billion from January to August 2026.

That already beat the US$7.815 billion recorded in all of 2025, Infobae reported.

Exports overall rose 24.6% in the first half of 2026 to US$49.5 billion, according to INDEC’s report on export complexes. Soy remained the largest complex at US$9.08 billion.

The oil and petrochemical complex followed at US$8.12 billion, up 43.7%.

INDEC is the national statistics office. Its index of mining output, which includes oil and gas extraction, rose 8.4% in August 2026 from a year earlier.

Crude oil supplied most of that growth.

Javier Milei, a libertarian economist, has been president since December 2023 and leads the La Libertad Avanza party. His government argues that private investment and open trade will rebuild the country’s reserves.

Under Article 124 of the constitution, however, the provinces own the natural resources in their territory.

Vaca Muerta: Oil and Gas

Vaca Muerta is a shale rock formation in Neuquén province, in northern Patagonia. It is drilled by hydraulic fracturing, the technique behind the US shale boom.

Argentina produced a record 916,200 barrels of oil a day in July 2026, the Energy Secretariat said on Monday 24 August 2026.

Vaca Muerta alone produced 643,100 barrels a day in July, up 26.4% on a year earlier. National gas output was 158.8 million cubic metres a day, of which 96.5 million came from Vaca Muerta.

In August, INDEC counted 3.28 million cubic metres of unconventional crude, up 26.9%.

The best-known operators are YPF, the oil company the state took control of in 2012, and Vista Energy. Both trade in New York, and Chevron also produces in the formation.

Pluspetrol and the Neuquén provincial firm GyP plan more than US$12 billion at Bajo del Choique-La Invernada. It was one of two RIGI approvals announced on Friday 2 October 2026, Chequeado reported.

Gas exports are the next bet. The largest approved RIGI project is a US$15 billion liquefied natural gas plant on the Río Negro coast.

It belongs to Southern Energy, a consortium of local and foreign companies. Argentina LNG, a YPF-led plan valued at US$51 billion, was still under evaluation in early October 2026.

The legal cloud over YPF has thinned. On Friday 27 March 2026 a US federal appeals court, the Second Circuit, annulled a 2023 judgment of about US$16.1 billion.

The full court refused a rehearing in June. The Burford Capital-backed plaintiffs then petitioned the US Supreme Court on Wednesday 30 September 2026.

Lithium and the Puna Salt Flats

Lithium is the fastest-growing resource. Exports reached US$1.467 billion from January to August 2026, up 190.5%, the national mining secretariat said.

That was 24.2% of all mining exports.

The metal is drawn from brine under salt flats in Jujuy, Salta and Catamarca, on the Andean plateau called the Puna. INDEC counted 8,582.6 tonnes of lithium carbonate in August 2026, up 8.8% on a year earlier.

Output from January to August was 39.8% higher than in the same months of 2025.

Foreign miners lead. Rio Tinto’s Rincón project in Salta is registered under the RIGI at US$2.744 billion, per the trade outlet Minería & Desarrollo.

Exar’s Cauchari-Olaroz expansion in Jujuy (US$1.241 billion) and Posco’s Sal de Oro II (US$547 million) follow.

Tres Quebradas in Catamarca, linked to China’s Zijin Mining, is listed at US$710 million. China bought US$1.546 billion of Argentine mining exports from January to August 2026, up 180%.

The United States took US$1.039 billion, and Switzerland led with US$1.891 billion.

Gold, Silver and the Copper Bet

Gold is still the biggest mining earner. Gold exports reached US$3.623 billion from January to August 2026, 60% of mining sales and up 42.8%.

Silver added US$726 million, up 64.1%.

Santa Cruz, in southern Patagonia, exported US$2.36 billion of metals in those eight months, La Opinión Austral reported. San Juan hosts Veladero, run by Canada’s Barrick with China’s Shandong Gold.

Their Veladero expansion is registered under the RIGI at US$436 million.

Copper is the long-term prize but barely exported now. Other metals, mainly copper and lead, earned only US$123 million from January to August 2026.

Yet the largest mining project in the RIGI is Vicuña, at US$9.737 billion. It is a copper, gold and silver deposit in San Juan owned by BHP and Lundin Mining.

Glencore’s MARA copper project in Catamarca, worth US$4 billion, cleared the RIGI committee on 2 October 2026. McEwen Copper’s Los Azules in San Juan (US$2.672 billion) and PSJ Cobre Mendocino in Mendoza (US$891 million) are also inside.

Thirteen mining projects worth about US$25.2 billion had entered by early October 2026.

Farmland, Grain and the Foreign Ownership Fight

The Pampas, the flat grasslands around Buenos Aires, remain the farm engine. The Buenos Aires grain exchange put the 2025/26 soybean crop at 50.1 million tonnes on almost 16 million hectares.

The agriculture secretariat estimated a record 2025/26 wheat crop of 27.8 million tonnes.

In the first half of 2026 the soy complex exported US$9.08 billion, maize US$4.24 billion and wheat US$2.54 billion, per INDEC. Beef and hides added US$2.69 billion, up 36.3%.

Farming still earns more abroad than mining.

Who may own the land is now in court. The rural land law, Law 26,737, caps foreign ownership at 15% of rural land, nationally and in each province or municipality.

No single foreign nationality may hold more than 30% of that share.

One foreign owner may hold at most 1,000 hectares in the core farming zone, or an equivalent area elsewhere. Foreigners may not own land that contains or borders large permanent bodies of water.

Milei’s emergency decree 70/2023 repealed the law in December 2023.

On Friday 9 October 2026 the Supreme Court suspended that repeal as an interim measure, restoring the limits. The case was brought by the civil association Árbol de Pie, Indigenous communities and a Río Negro legislator.

The court has not ruled on the merits, and Justice Carlos Rosenkrantz dissented.

Water, Forests and Fisheries

Glaciers matter to mining because many of the big deposits sit high in the Andes. In April 2026 Congress reformed the glacier protection law.

The Chamber of Deputies gave final approval on Wednesday 8 April by 137 votes to 111, with 3 abstentions.

The new Law 27,804, promulgated by Decree 271/2026, limits protection to glaciers and periglacial areas that perform water functions. Each province now sets those criteria.

Provinces then decide case by case, through environmental impact studies, which activities to allow, Diario Río Negro reported.

Forests are under pressure in the north. The national native forest monitoring system recorded 44,423 hectares of loss in Santiago del Estero in 2024 and 37,788 in Chaco.

Each province lost 0.75% of its native forest that year.

Formosa lost 16,635 hectares and Salta 13,964 in 2024, by the same count. The monitoring tracks the Native Forests Law, Law 26,331, under which provinces zone forests into conservation categories.

The sea is a quieter earner. The fishing complex exported US$1.252 billion in the first half of 2026, up 17.4% and a record in INDEC’s series since 2002.

Who Profits: The RIGI and the Money Trail

The RIGI, or Incentive Regime for Large Investments, is part of the Ley Bases, Law 27,742, published in the Official Gazette on 8 July 2024. Projects must invest at least US$200 million.

They pay a flat 25% income tax rate instead of the standard scale.

Export duties fall to zero three years after a project joins. Exporters may keep 20%, then 40%, then 100% of export proceeds outside the local currency market over four years from start-up.

The law also shields projects from tougher tax, customs and currency rules, a guarantee that runs 30 years.

Economy ministry data cited by Chequeado on 2 October 2026 showed 23 approved projects worth US$49.7 billion. Twelve were in mining and seven in oil and gas.

Another 24, promising US$159 billion, were under evaluation.

Promises are not cash. Central bank vice-president Vladimir Werning told investors that net RIGI inflows reached US$762 million through the first quarter of 2026.

The Observatorio del RIGI, a civil society group, argues most approved projects were planned before the law existed.

What It Means for US Readers

Investors: YPF and Vista trade in New York, and Chevron, BHP, Rio Tinto, Glencore and Barrick all hold Argentine assets. The RIGI is a law, not a treaty, so its 30-year promises depend on future Congresses and courts. The YPF petition at the US Supreme Court remains a live risk for creditors and the state.

Supply chains: Argentina is now a meaningful lithium seller. But China bought more of its mining exports than the United States from January to August 2026. The top destinations of the oil complex in the first half of 2026 were the United States, Chile and Brazil.

Travellers and expats: the Salinas Grandes salt flat and the Perito Moreno Glacier sit inside these resource debates. Anyone buying rural land should take legal advice, because the foreign ownership limits were restored on 9 October 2026.

What Prediction Markets Say

Polymarket’s 2027 election market gives Milei 55.5% and Axel Kicillof, the Peronist governor of Buenos Aires province, 32.5% (12 October, 8:38 a.m. ET). Sergio Massa, the Peronist Milei beat in 2023, stands at 7.45%.

The event had traded about US$837,000 in total, including about US$202,000 on the Milei contract. These are bets, not polls.

They matter for resources because whoever governs after 2027 will decide how the RIGI and the land law are applied.

Why we show this: prediction markets turn real-money bets into a live probability that moves within minutes of the news, which is why investors, campaigns and newsrooms in the United States now follow them closely. We show them next to polls and official results, never instead of them.

What Is Not Known

How much RIGI money has actually arrived. Official net inflow data stop at the first quarter of 2026, and the approved totals are investment plans, not spending.

Whether the US Supreme Court will hear the YPF case, and when. There is no fixed deadline for a decision on the petition.

How the land case ends. The Supreme Court’s order is interim, and a Bariloche federal court must still rule on standing and the injunction request.

How each province will apply the new glacier criteria, and when Vicuña, MARA and Los Azules will start producing copper. Lithium and gold prices will shape all of these plans.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Argentina’s main natural resources?

Shale oil and gas in Vaca Muerta, lithium in the north-west, gold and silver, and future copper mines. Add Pampas farmland, glaciers, native forests and South Atlantic fisheries. Soy remained the largest export complex in the first half of 2026.

How much oil does Argentina produce?

A record 916,200 barrels a day in July 2026, up 17.2% on a year earlier, according to the Energy Secretariat. Vaca Muerta supplied 643,100 barrels a day of that total.

How big are Argentina’s lithium exports?

Lithium exports reached US$1.467 billion from January to August 2026, up 190.5%, per the mining secretariat. INDEC counted 8,582.6 tonnes of lithium carbonate output in August 2026.

What is the RIGI?

The Incentive Regime for Large Investments, part of Law 27,742 of 2024. Projects investing at least US$200 million pay a 25% income tax rate. They are exempt from export duties after three years and get 30 years of rule stability.

Can foreigners buy farmland in Argentina?

Yes, within limits. On 9 October 2026 the Supreme Court suspended the repeal of Law 26,737. That restores a 15% cap on foreign-owned rural land and a 1,000-hectare limit per owner in the core zone.

Who profits from Argentina’s resources?

Provinces own the resources and grant the rights. Foreign groups such as Rio Tinto, BHP, Lundin Mining, Glencore, Barrick and Chevron lead many projects, alongside YPF, Vista and Pluspetrol.

Sources: INDEC, mining production index, August 2026, https://www.indec.gob.ar/uploads/informesdeprensa/ipi_minero_10_26AEDFED4AA8.pdf; Energy Secretariat, July 2026 oil output, https://www.argentina.gob.ar/noticias/la-produccion-de-petroleo-registro-otro-mes-de-crecimiento-en-julio; Law 27,742 (Ley Bases, RIGI), https://www.argentina.gob.ar/normativa/nacional/ley-27742-401266/texto; Law 26,737 (rural land), https://www.argentina.gob.ar/normativa/nacional/ley-26737-192150/texto; Constitution, Article 124, https://www.argentina.gob.ar/normativa/nacional/ley-24430-804/texto; Economy Ministry, RIGI projects, https://www.argentina.gob.ar/economia/rigi; National Native Forest Monitoring System, 2024, https://www.argentina.gob.ar/sites/default/files/2018/04/infografia_monitoreo_2024_ok_1.pdf; Chevron Argentina, https://www.chevron.com/worldwide/argentina; Vista Energy, https://www.vistaenergy.com/en; Chequeado on RIGI approvals, https://chequeado.com/el-explicador/el-gobierno-anuncio-en-paris-2-nuevos-rigi-cuantos-proyectos-se-aprobaron-y-cuantos-dolares-ingresaron-hasta-ahora/; Minería & Desarrollo, RIGI mining projects, https://www.mineriaydesarrollo.com/noticias/2026/10/05/26985-los-13-proyectos-mineros-que-ya-ingresaron-al-rigi-en-argentina-y-suman-mas-de-us25000-millones-en-inversiones; El Economista, mining exports January to August 2026, https://eleconomista.com.ar/energia/la-mineria-acelera-ya-genera-us-6059-millones-litio-dispara-negocio-n98622; Sitio Andino, 2025 mining exports, https://www.sitioandino.com.ar/economia/mineria-argentina-exporto-ocho-meses-lo-mismo-que-todo-2025-n5731354; Infobae, energy trade surplus, https://www.infobae.com/economia/2026/09/21/superavit-energetico-record-en-8-meses-la-argentina-ya-supero-lo-que-genero-en-todo-2025/; Memo, INDEC export complexes first half 2026, https://www.memo.com.ar/economia/las-exportaciones-argentinas-crecieron-24-6-en-el-primer-semestre/; Bolsa de Cereales soybean close via Data Portuaria, https://dataportuaria.com/es/argentina/agro/la-cosecha-de-soja-2025-26-cerro-con-una-produccion-de-50-1-millones-de-toneladas-y-un-rendimiento-record-de-31-3-qq-ha; Infocampo, agriculture secretariat wheat estimate, https://www.infocampo.com.ar/para-el-gobierno-la-cosecha-de-trigo-crecio-50-y-el-nuevo-record-es-de-278-millones-de-toneladas/; Infobae, Supreme Court land law order, https://www.infobae.com/judiciales/2026/10/09/la-corte-suspendio-el-articulo-del-dnu-70-que-derogaba-la-ley-de-tierras/; Diario Río Negro, glacier law reform, https://www.rionegro.com.ar/politica/ley-de-glaciares-nacion-oficializo-la-reforma-y-delego-facultades-de-control-a-las-provincias-4550580/; Infobae, YPF Supreme Court petition, https://www.infobae.com/economia/2026/10/01/burford-presento-un-recurso-ante-la-corte-suprema-de-eeuu-en-un-ultimo-intento-por-revertir-el-fallo-de-ypf/; Courthouse News, Second Circuit YPF ruling, https://www.courthousenews.com/second-circuit-reverses-16-billion-judgment-against-argentina-over-renationalized-oil-company/. All accessed 12 October 2026.