MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine deputies want lithium nationalized

“It is time to break with the extractivist-export model [and] modify the mining code...,” Alderete said

A group of lawmakers from Argentine's ruling Everybody's Front (Frente de Todos - FdT) has launched an initiative to nationalize the country's lithium resources, it was reported Wednesday in Buenos Aires.

The bill seeks to declare the natural reserves of this mineral as a “strategic resource” because “it is essential that we take in our hands the defense of our sovereignty”, said Deputy Juan Carlos Alderete of the FdT's Corriente Clasista Combativa (CCC) faction.

Juan Carlos Alderete, presented yesterday a project that proposes to declare the natural reserves containing lithium as a “strategic resource.”

The initiative promoted by Alderete also bears the signatures of FdT national deputies Verónica Caliva, Daniel Gollan, Julio Pereyra, Carolina Arricau, Blanca Osuna, Natalia Souto, and Beatriz Ormachea, among others.

“It is essential that we take in our hands the defense of our sovereignty, protect the national interests related to this strategic natural resource, and advance in concrete measures that allow the industrialization at [the place of] origin with the due environmental safeguards and respect for the native peoples,” said Alderete.

“This is not only necessary but possible. It is time to break with the extractivist-export model, modify the mining code, modify the Mining Investment Law, and move forward with a model of national development and defense of our sovereignty,” he went on.

Alderete also said he was convinced that “there is a way out of this crisis and we have infinite confidence in our people. The circumstances are difficult and require us to be up to the task, and above all, to take the measures that must be taken.”

He also highlighted the importance of ”returning to the path that marked the extraordinary contribution of the great fortunes. We cannot live under the constant blackmail of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which asks us for more and more adjustment; we must break this agreement with the Fund,“ he stressed.

”We must put a stop to the big speculators and freeze prices to stop inflation now. We must increase salaries, pensions, and social programs to recover purchasing power,” he insisted.