Argentina has become a major mining hotspot in recent years, as energy firms eye the South American country’s vast critical mineral reserves and build upon its strong mining reputation. In addition to lithium and copper, companies are showing interest in Argentina’s uranium reserves, particularly as several governments worldwide look to rapidly develop their nuclear energy capacity. However, many Argentinians are less enthusiastic about the prospect of uranium mining.
Argentina’s uranium resources total roughly 10,500 tonnes of elemental uranium (tU). Uranium exploration activities began to be carried out in the 1950s, and the last uranium mine closed in 1997 due to economic constraints. The cumulative national uranium production until this point totalled around 2,582 tU.
Argentina is home to three operational nuclear plants – Atucha I and II and Embalse – which provide around 5 percent of the country’s electricity. Since the closure of its uranium mines, Argentina has imported uranium to meet its uranium demand. President Milei sees the redevelopment of the country’s uranium mining industry as a strategic move to boost energy security.
The Sierra Pintada mine in Mendoza, in the central west of the country, operated by Argentina’s National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA), was expected to reopen, but provincial opposition has meant that the mine has remained closed. In 2007, CNEA also made a deal with the Salta provincial government in the north of the country to develop the Don Otto uranium mine south of Salta, which was open between 1963 and 1981, but this has not come to fruition.
CNEA has been conducting feasibility studies for the mining of the Cerro Solo deposit in Chubut since 2018, which is thought to hold 4600 tU, making it one of Argentina’s largest proven uranium reserves. There is currently a provincial ban on open-pit mining; the redevelopment of the mine is the first step in President Milei’s new nuclear plan.
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However, there has been broad opposition towards Milei’s nuclear strategy for a wide range of reasons. The ex-president of the CNEA, Adriana Serquis, believes that “The plan doesn’t seem oriented toward supplying our own plants, but rather exporting uranium directly to the U.S. It would appear the objective is to satisfy others’ needs while destroying our own capabilities.”
In August 2025, Dioxitek, a state-run subsidiary of CNEA, which transforms imported uranium into the uranium dioxide required to power Argentina’s nuclear power plants, signed a deal with U.S.-based Nano Nuclear Energy to supply the firm with uranium hexafluoride. This came as a surprise to many, as Argentina’s nuclear reactors run on natural or low-enriched uranium oxide, not uranium hexafluoride. This suggests that any uranium mined in the South American country would, therefore, likely be exported to the U.S. rather than used for domestic nuclear energy production.
Nano also signed a memorandum of understanding with the British-Argentinian company UrAmerica, which has a significant stake in Chubut and plans to mine uranium. One passage in the agreement stated the aim of “strengthening U.S. energy security by sourcing materials for nuclear fuel from a reliable partner”.
Argentina is thought to have roughly enough proven uranium reserves to meet domestic demand for around 70 years, based on its current nuclear energy production capacity. For this reason, many in the sector believe that the country does not have enough uranium to spare and should only be developing its mining sector if it contributes to national energy production. However, Milei’s plan to export uranium further aligns Argentina with the White House and doubles down on the president’s statement in September that Argentina is an “unconditional ally of the U.S.”.
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Many residents in Chubut fear being turned into an energy colony, due to the broken promises of the past. Others are concerned about the environmental concerns of uranium mining and waste management. It is precisely for these types of concerns that a 2003 referendum on open-pit gold mining received an 81 percent “no” vote, leading to the introduction of the no open-pit mining law. Communities across Chubut feel abandoned, as they continue to reside next to the remnants of past, failed uranium mining projects.
In January, a delegation from the U.S. Congress Energy and Commerce Committee visited the city of Neuquén, in Argentina, to discuss the potential for critical mineral mining. Ahead of the visit, U.S. lawmakers made an unscheduled stopover in Argentina’s most southernmost city, Ushuaia, in the Patagonian region, spurring further controversy.
In Tierra del Fuego, part of Argentine Patagonia, there are both uranium and rare earths, which are essential elements on the U.S. critical minerals list. Chubut is home to various exploration projects, including Cerro Solo, Hope, Lago Seco, Laguna Colorada, Meseta Central and Sierra Cuadrada. Mining in such an environmentally significant area of the world has long been seen as controversial, due to the potentially damaging impact of these activities, and the recent U.S. visit has made many speculate about President Trump’s interest in the region.
By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com
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