Wedoany.com Report on Mar 7th, During the 2026 PDAC conference, Canadian mining company First Quantum announced it will establish an exploration base in Mendoza Province, Argentina. The Mendoza provincial government stated that the company is expected to open an office in the coming weeks, a decision seen as a concrete signal of international interest in the province's geological potential.
Minister of Energy and Environment Jimena Latorre announced the news in Toronto. She stated, "First Quantum's decision to establish a local presence follows meetings with major mining companies and a review of exploration opportunities in the province." Provincial officials believe this move aligns with investors' perception of Mendoza's institutional processes aimed at attracting mining investment.
According to sources, the plan is to establish First Quantum Minerals' national exploration base in Mendoza, coordinating work related to local projects. The company expects to incorporate these projects into its exploration portfolio in the coming months. Such a structure typically involves deploying geological and technical teams, planning early-stage exploration activities, and evaluating potential areas that could advance to drilling and long-term project development.
The establishment of the exploration base returns Mendoza to a role it played decades ago on the geological map of the central Andes. In the 1980s and 1990s, many mining companies used the province as an operational platform to coordinate exploration activities in parts of the central Andes. Mendoza once hosted technical offices, geological teams, and logistics centers supporting exploration projects across different provinces and mountainous areas.
This model began to fade in the early 2000s, coinciding with the consolidation of political and social opposition to metal mining. Since then, Mendoza has not served as a regional operational hub, with many international teams relocating to jurisdictions with more active mining activities, particularly San Juan and northwestern Argentina. Against this backdrop, the provincial government describes First Quantum's decision as a relevant signal as Mendoza seeks to reposition itself within the international mining community.
First Quantum Minerals is one of the world's major copper producers, with large-scale operations in countries including Zambia, Turkey, Spain, Finland, and Australia. The company focuses on developing large-scale copper deposits, often associated with porphyry systems, a geological model predominant in the Andes.
In Argentina, First Quantum controls Taca Taca in Salta Province, one of the country's largest undeveloped copper projects. The deposit is a copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry system, with a development concept including an open-pit mine and a processing plant based on crushing, grinding, and flotation to produce copper concentrate. Technical studies on Taca Taca indicate a processing capacity of nearly 60 million tonnes of ore per year, with estimated annual production of approximately 250,000 tonnes of contained copper, along with gold and molybdenum by-products. The project is estimated to require an investment of around $5.2 billion, making it one of Argentina's largest proposed copper developments.
Additionally, Mendoza's meetings in Toronto included discussions with executives from the global mining company BHP. According to Minister Latorre, BHP maintains an active global exploration function with a focus on Argentina, including Mendoza, where it reviews opportunities related to Andean geological potential. During PDAC, provincial officials met with members of the company's exploration team, including global executives involved in identifying new mining districts and long-term project development. While the company did not announce any specific decisions, the provincial government described BHP's exploration interest as another indicator of Mendoza's growing profile among major international miners.
