Rio Tinto’s $2.5bn lithium plan is a win for Milei

Rio Tinto Group plans to invest $2.5-billion in a new lithium mine in Argentina in a win for President Javier Milei’s efforts to deregulate the country’s economy and lure foreign investment.

The UK company plans to build a processing plant at the Rincon mine with an annual capacity of 60 000 metric tons of lithium carbonate, it said Thursday in a statement. Work on the facility, subject to permitting, will start in the middle of next year.