{"id":221476,"date":"2025-06-28T14:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T14:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/221476\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T14:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T14:00:09","slug":"france-and-argentina-sign-deal-on-critical-minerals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/221476\/","title":{"rendered":"France and Argentina sign deal on critical minerals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Argentina\u2019s government has signed an agreement with France to strengthen their collaboration on critical minerals, with a focus on lithium development. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Officials representing both governments inked a memorandum Friday at the French Embassy in Buenos Aires, News.Az<\/a> reports citing foreign media.<\/p>\n

Argentina is home to the world\u2019s third-largest reserves of lithium, which is seen as essential to the energy transition. Both nations have now agreed to work closer, developing ties in this strategic sector to promote financing and investment for new and ongoing projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to data from the United States Geological Survey, Argentina was the fourth-largest producer of the metal in 2023, behind only Australia, Chile and China.<\/p>\n

Together with Bolivia and Chile, Argentina forms part of the so-called \u201clithium triangle,\u201d a region that experts believe could contain over half of the world\u2019s resources of the metal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lithium is vital to the energy transition, as it plays a key role in batteries for electric vehicles and smartphones.<\/p>\n

The new \u201cmemorandum of understanding\u201d \u2013 signed in Buenos Aires by Laurent Saint-Martin, French Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and French Nationals Abroad, and Argentina\u2019s Mining Secretary Luis Lucero \u2013 aims to \u201cmake the mining sector a strategic priority\u201d in Franco-Argentine relations, said the French official.<\/p>\n

Lucero described the agreement as a \u201croad map\u201d and a \u201ctool that opens a field of cooperation\u201d which must now be followed by \u201ca bilateral dialogue to establish concrete measures.\u201d<\/p>\n

The deal seeks to \u201craise the bilateral minerals partnership to a political level, taking into account the critical challenges posed by strategic minerals for energy solutions,\u201d Saint-Martin added.<\/p>\n

It also aims to \u201caccelerate the rollout of investment projects by French companies in the coming months and years, and to strengthen the mobilisation of public cooperation instruments for project financing,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

French investments in Argentina rose by 43 percent year-on-year in 2024, reaching US$7.6 billion across all sectors. France is now the fifth-largest foreign investor in the South American country\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

Mining played a significant role in that surge, with US$850 million invested in the launch of the first direct lithium extraction plant operated by French mining group Eramet, which was inaugurated in 2024 in north-western Salta Province.<\/p>\n

\u201cArgentina has world-class mineral resources in terms of quality, quantity and diversity, and will play a fundamental role in the global energy transition,\u201d said Saint-Martin.<\/p>\n

Argentina has already signed similar memoranda of understanding on critical minerals with the United States, in August 2024, and with the United Arab Emirates, back in February.<\/p>\n

News.Az<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Argentina\u2019s government has signed an agreement with France to strengthen their collaboration on critical minerals, with a focus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[10105,33723,2000,299,36,6503],"class_list":{"0":"post-221476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-argentina","9":"tag-critical-minerals","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-france","13":"tag-lithium"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}