São Paulo, December 19th (Argus) - The joint venture between Ganfeng Lithium and Argentina Lithium, headquartered in Switzerland, Exar Minera, has officially applied for the Argentine federal tax incentive program to facilitate its expansion plan.
The company is seeking the benefits of Argentina's Large Investment Incentive Program (RIGI), which allows for a 10-25% reduction in tax rates, exemption from import and export duties, and 30 years of legal stability to support its expansion plan.
Exar hopes to expand its wholly-owned Cauchari-Olaroz project by 45,000 tons per year of lithium carbonate, bringing the total capacity to 85,000 tons per year. Cauchari-Olaroz is one of the largest lithium carbonate enterprises in Argentina, with the goal of producing 3-3.5 million tons of lithium carbonate by the end of the year. In 2024, it produced 2.5 million tons.
The expansion plant will use direct extraction of lithium, replacing the original traditional brine evaporation method.
Since the first quarter of this year, Exar has been working on its RIGI application.
It is not yet clear how long Exar will take to make a decision, but the Argentine government stated that if there are no delays due to the need to provide additional information or review, decisions related to RIGI will take a maximum of 45 working days from the date of submission.
