Minería metalífera multinacional en Argentina: su costo de oportunidad económico-estatal y escenarios alternativos

Large-scale metal mining in Argentina has been developing led by a neo-extractivist, private and multinational criterion which has created substantial direct and indirect benefits for the State and simultaneously high economic, social and environmental opportunity costs. Now, how high has the economic opportunity cost been for the state? And which key issues need to be discussed in order to overcome the neo-extractivist logic? This study presents three visions or possible scenarios. The first is based on 17 large mining projects and calculates the economic opportunity cost incurred by the state in the period 1997-2012 in which it lost a mining net income worth almost USD 6,000 million and is putting at stake in the near future another USD 25,000 million (nominal values). The second scenario, like the third, is descriptive, qualitative, based on literature and analyses the key issues of a state which increases its control over mining activities and its stake in mining-generated incomes though it still faces socio-environmental costs. The latter are the focus of the third scenario in which the state seeks to reduce such costs by increasing public participation, strategic planning and evaluates technology alternatives, some complementary to large-scale mining, including the recycling of metals.