KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – Argentina has offered to share lithium geological information for exploration with India as it aims to promote government-backed joint venture (JV) mining projects in the Latin American nation.

The Geological and Mining Survey of Argentina would share geological information with its Indian counterpart and Indian mining companies, while the Federal Mining Council of Argentina would coordinate with various Argentine provinces to promote bilateral JVs between government companies of both countries to implement projects.

The outline of cooperation between the two countries was laid down during Argentine President Mauricio Macri’s visit to New Delhi this week and his talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Though no memorandum of understandings were signed between the two countries at the end of the bilateral talks, as was the case in sectors like defence, agriculture, civil nuclear, information and communication technology and pharmaceuticals, collaboration in lithium exploration and mining projects featured as the highlight of the joint statement issued at end of the New Delhi talks.

The Argentine side conveyed its satisfaction with the formation and initiatives taken by Khanij Videsh India Limited (Kabil), in exploring opportunities in developing lithium assets in the Latin American nation.

Kabil is the recently formed JV of government mining and mineral processing companies – National Aluminium Company, Hindustan Copper and Mineral Exploration Corporation – aimed specifically at acquiring and developing strategic mineral assets overseas.

However, sources familiar with closed door delegation level talks between the two sides said that the Argentine government was in favour of JVs of government companies of both countries sharing mining technology and development of projects for value addition of minerals within Argentina, instead of pure play transactional projects for extraction of minerals and shipping it back to India.

The Argentina-India talks' elephant in the room was China's broad presence in the Latin American region and deep engagements, both at the diplomatic and investment levels.

Acknowledging this, Argentine Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Faurie observed that China had been in the region for more than 20 years and India would “have to be absolutely active in Latin America”.

Responding to what India needed to do to deepen such activity, he said that China was “doing something relevant, not only for Argentina, but also for all Latin American countries. Chines comes with ideas, projects that they want to develop and they come with money. That was extremely important because Argentina was lagging in financing.”