The official who halted Calcatreu spoke with Comunicaciones Mineras

The debate around the Calcatreu mine has entered a new stage. Production at the gold mine owned by Patagonia Gold resumed after the agreement reached with the Río Negro government, but for the province the most important chapter is just beginning now: overseeing that the commitments made are actually fulfilled on the ground.

That is how María Marta Avilez, Labor Secretary of Río Negro, explained it in an exclusive interview with Comunicaciones Mineras, where she walked through the negotiation process, detailed the oversight mechanisms and focused on the young people of Ingeniero Jacobacci who will have a concrete opportunity to join the mining sector.

“From the start, we were very firm,” Avilez said.

The conflict between Río Negro and Patagonia Gold was resolved this Wednesday at a new labor hearing.

This Wednesday there was a new meeting between the Río Negro Labor Secretariat, Patagonia Gold and members of the community.

The official explained that the provincial stance did not begin with the Calcatreu conflict, but is part of a policy that Río Negro has upheld since the projects began developing.

“We are in favor of mining in Río Negro, this kind of sustainable mining that has completed all the necessary environmental impact steps, built social license and secured approval at the Public Hearing,” she said.

But she immediately drew the line the province considers non-negotiable:

“What we won’t negotiate is these projects not hiring workers from Río Negro.”

The 30 hires the company had to prove

One of the first points of the agreement is already being carried out.

The Labor Secretariat required Patagonia Gold to prove the hires it had committed to and received the corresponding documentation.

“We asked them for thirty hires and the company had to hand over the thirty corresponding records,” Avilez explained.

The detail matters because the commitment does not remain merely on paper at a negotiating table: the province uses labor registration as a concrete tool to verify that the hires actually take place.

The official also indicated that monitoring will continue over the coming weeks.

Patagonia Gold's commitment was to hire 30 young people who will be trained and receive a stipend.

“In two weeks we’ll meet again in Jacobacci, where we’ll already have a pre-designed training program for thirty more profiles,” she said.

30 young people from Jacobacci and a $2 million allowance

The second part of the agreement centers on young people from Ingeniero Jacobacci.

The province will work together with the company and educational institutions to design training linked to the profiles the mining operation actually needs.

“We can’t train people in electrical work if what’s needed is machinists, for example,” Avilez explained.

Labor Secretary María Marta Avilez and Mining Secretary Joaquín Aberestain Oro during a visit to the Calcatreu mine.

The definition of the curriculum will be tied to the company’s actual demand, with the goal of ensuring training leads to a real job opportunity.

But there is also a financial incentive that could prove decisive for young people in the area: each participant will receive a $2 million stipend.

The goal is to ensure that the need for immediate income doesn’t end up crowding out the chance to get trained.

“When the economic situation is tough, young people often choose an odd job over training,” the secretary acknowledged.

That’s why, she said, the funding aims to cover travel costs and other expenses so participants can stick with the training process.

“I think this contribution of two million pesos per participant covers the travel costs and expenses they need in order to prioritize training over an immediate odd job,” she explained.

The program will not be informal or merely a handout. Participants will have to meet 90% attendance and pass an exam.

“There will be rigor,” Avilez stressed.

Training as a gateway into mining

The program is especially aimed at youth employment.

One of the most common obstacles for those seeking their first job is lack of experience. In this case, the training aims to serve as a bridge between education and actually entering the workforce.

“We’re focusing hard on youth employment, because one of the biggest difficulties they face is lack of experience,” Avilez said.

The provincial government will also take part in monitoring alongside the educational institutions, public or private, where the programs are run.

In this way, the Calcatreu case raises an issue that runs through much of Argentine mining: how to ensure that incoming investment generates concrete opportunities for communities near the projects.

Patagonia Gold will have to guarantee 80% local hiring.

The 80% and monitoring of local labor

Hiring workers from Río Negro was one of the central points of the discussion.

Avilez recalled that the province had already been demanding local employment even before the regulation establishing the 80-20 scheme was passed.

“Before we had the 80-20 law, we were already petitioning for all jobs, from the start of a project to its completion, to be filled by people from Río Negro,” she explained.

In the case of Calcatreu, the province found that the company was at around 71% or 72% local hiring, below the target set.

For the provincial government, that percentage is not a minor detail: it is part of the conditions under which it wants mining development to move forward.

A table where government, company, unions and community all take part

Another element Avilez highlighted is the operation of a standing working group.

It brings together the municipality, AOMA —the main union in the industry—, the construction workers’ union and the Peñi Mapu Mapuche community, along with the provincial government and the company.

“Here we have standing working groups, with many stakeholders coming together,” she explained.

Community participation was also key to building the project’s social license.

Avilez noted that the Peñi Mapu Mapuche community took part in the working groups and demanded that the commitments made be actually honored.

The scheme thus lays out a form of governance that goes beyond the bilateral relationship between the state and the company: the project’s conditions are discussed and monitored with various stakeholders from the territory.

Health and safety: the other red line

Local employment was not the only reason for the Labor Secretariat’s intervention.

During inspections, issues were also found related to camp conditions, the dining hall, road safety at the project’s access point, signage and lighting.

“For us, that constituted a serious or imminent risk to workers’ health,” Avilez said.

The official tied this decision to a broader provincial prevention policy.

“We know there are provinces with fatal precedents, and we are not going to head down that road. We are going to look after people from the outset,” she said.

Río Negro’s message to mining companies

For Avilez, demanding local employment, training and proper working conditions doesn’t mean putting a brake on mining development.

On the contrary, she argues it can strengthen the projects themselves.

“I want the private sector at my table, together with the unions and the provincial government, to formalize this kind of agreement,” she said.

And she added:

“If you have trained staff, if you have a satisfied community, if your workers are well taken care of in terms of health and safety and wages, you’re going to produce three times as much.”

The province’s view is that social license, local employment and workplace safety should not appear as obstacles that come after the investment, but as part of the necessary conditions for a project to develop sustainably.

After the conflict, the real oversight begins

Calcatreu is producing again, but the agreement opened a new stage.

Now it will be necessary to verify that the 30 hires hold, that the other 30 young people can complete the training, that attendance and evaluation requirements are met, and that safety conditions remain under monitoring.

For the young people of Ingeniero Jacobacci, the agreement also represents a concrete opportunity: training linked to the real demand of a producing gold mine and a $2 million stipend to help sustain that process.

For Río Negro, the message is broader.

The province maintains that it supports mining, but also that development must leave behind skills and jobs in the territory.

And the Calcatreu case shows how that debate can move from statements to concrete mechanisms: hiring records, contracting percentages, training, stipends, exams, working groups and safety controls, and genuine development for communities holding the resources the world is demanding, at a moment when the gold boom could translate into opportunities that the people of the Línea Sur in Río Negro have, for the first time, within reach.