Cristian FranchiProvinces

On February 1, President Alberto Fernández leaves on a very important tour to Russia and China, two strategic allies. In both countries he will hold meetings with their presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping and will be accompanied by two governors who will seek to achieve their own goals.

Part of the entourage will be made up of the leaders of Catamarca, Raúl Jalil and of Río Negro, Arabela Carreras, taking into account that Axel Kicillof from Buenos Aires will not be able to travel, since he has just suffered from Covid and does not comply with the protocols established by those countries for entry.

The company of the presidents to these giants of the world is not accidental, since both will carry their folders, with projects for the search for investments in energy matters for their provinces.

In the case of Arabela Carreras, -whose presence was in doubt until the last moment-, it was officially reported that the objective of the governor's participation is to promote the "green agenda", linked to the energy transition and the production of green hydrogen. .

As N&P learned, the inclusion of the president of Rio Negro is directly linked to the efforts that the national government has been maintaining so that Invap can provide low-power nuclear reactors for medicinal use.

Weeks ago, the Argentine ambassador to China Sabino Vaca Narvaja had declared that the Asian giant “imports 86% of the medicinal radioisotopes used for nuclear medicine. So he wants to be technologically independent in that area as well, and he studied radioisotope production reactors 12 years ago and chose those of Invap. An agreement will be signed during the president's visit. The impact is very strong, about 400 million dollars are calculated for each reactor”.

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It should be noted that in 2007, the province of Río Negro rejected the construction of a nuclear power plant (for electricity generation) in Sierra Grande and later sanctioned a law that prohibits this type of development outside of that carried out by the National Commission for Atomic Energy with the Carem project.

Jalil's folder: Lithium and strategic works

In the case of Governor Catamarca Raul Jalil, he established his priorities in seeking capital for the exploitation of lithium, the production of photovoltaic energy, the Bioceanic Railway Corridor and the multipurpose project Potrero del Clavillo.

In the first point of this trio of topics that the Catamarcan's folder contains, the Potrero del Clavillo work is part of the list of 17 infrastructure projects that the National Government proposed to be completely financed with Chinese capital in the search for investments for more than 20,000 million dollars.

On the other hand, it will seek to tempt Russian investors in the exploitation of lithium, a mechanism that is quite well oiled with China. Last week the Zijin company announced the acquisition of the Canadian mining company Neo Lithium, which operates Tres Quebradas, one of the mines located in the province.

Zijin Mining, which is one of the largest gold and copper producers in the Asian country, expects to make an initial investment of some 319 million dollars and has already begun environmental impact studies to carry out the work.

The other topic of interest -not only for the province, but for the region- is the Bioceanic Railway Corridor, a mega-work that will reduce logistics times for the export of Argentine products to the Asian continent.

Regarding the intention to produce photovoltaic energy and the start-up of the Bioceanic Corridor through the San Francisco International Passage, it is a work requested in conjunction with the Riojan government and to which other provinces, including Córdoba, are added. |

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