GUÍA NACIONAL PARA EL CIERRE DE MINAS CON GARANTÍAS FINANCIERAS EN LA REPÚBLICA ARGENTINA

This 2021 guide by the IISD provides a framework for establishing financial guarantees for mine closure in Argentina. It argues that such guarantees are essential to prevent abandoned mines and ensure environmental stability. The guide details the mine life cycle, evaluates various financial instruments available under Argentine law (including surety insurance, trusts, and pledges), and proposes legislative principles based on liquidity, flexibility, and efficiency to ensure that closure costs are fully covered.

• Argentina currently lacks a national law specifically for financial guarantees for mine closure, although some provincial regulations exist, such as Resolution 396/16 in Catamarca and Resolution 037/2020 in Jujuy.
• Financial guarantees are defined as financial provisions granted by a mining company to the application authority to ensure funds are available for mine closure if the company is unable or unwilling to perform the tasks, such as in cases of bankruptcy or site abandonment.
• The guide identifies several benefits of financial guarantees, including a more accurate determination of a project's economic viability, the promotion of 'progressive closure' (where rehabilitation occurs during operations to reduce the final guarantee amount), and the facilitation of adaptive reuse and a circular economy for the land after mining.
• The mine life cycle is divided into several stages: exploration, planning and feasibility studies, construction and commissioning, operations, closure, and the post-closure stage. Financial guarantees should ideally be proportional to the level of land disturbance created during these stages.
• The document analyzes various financial instruments for guarantees under Argentine law, noting that 'surety insurance' (seguro de caución) is advantageous because it does not require the company to freeze liquid assets and offers a simple execution process for the authority.
• Other analyzed instruments include 'pledge of deposit balances' (prenda de saldos en depósito), which provides a priority claim for the state but has high financial costs for the company; 'guarantee trusts' (fideicomiso en garantía), which create a separate asset pool but involve high administrative burdens; and 'sureties' (fianza), which are agile to implement but complex to execute legally.
• Real property guarantees, such as pledges on movable goods (prenda) and mortgages on real estate (hipoteca), are described as solid for the authority due to 'persecution and preference' rights, but they are criticized for low liquidity and complex execution via judicial auctions.
• Contributions to the Environmental Compensation Fund (Fondo de Compensación Ambiental), created by General Environment Law No. 25.675, are suggested as a liquid alternative, though they may be challenged by companies citing fiscal stability under the Mining Investment Law No. 24.196.
• The guide recommends that future legislation on mine closure guarantees be based on seven principles: liquidity, exclusivity, flexibility, correspondence with factual circumstances, adaptability, efficiency, and precision/clarity.

APA

International Institute for Sustainable Development (2021). GUÍA NACIONAL PARA EL CIERRE DE MINAS CON GARANTÍAS FINANCIERAS EN LA REPÚBLICA ARGENTINA. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2021-08/financially-assured-mine-closure-argentina-es.pdf

Chicago

International Institute for Sustainable Development. GUÍA NACIONAL PARA EL CIERRE DE MINAS CON GARANTÍAS FINANCIERAS EN LA REPÚBLICA ARGENTINA. 2021. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2021-08/financially-assured-mine-closure-argentina-es.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=International Institute for Sustainable Development |title=GUÍA NACIONAL PARA EL CIERRE DE MINAS CON GARANTÍAS FINANCIERAS EN LA REPÚBLICA ARGENTINA |date=August 2021 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2021-08/financially-assured-mine-closure-argentina-es.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{internationalinstituteforsustainabledevelopment2021gua, author = {{International Institute for Sustainable Development}}, title = {{GUÍA NACIONAL PARA EL CIERRE DE MINAS CON GARANTÍAS FINANCIERAS EN LA REPÚBLICA ARGENTINA}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2021}, month = aug, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2021-08/financially-assured-mine-closure-argentina-es.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }