San Romeleo: Malargüe copper for Mendoza wine

I will support the ratification of San Romeleo, and I want to tell you why.

For too long, in Mendoza we have discussed mining out of fear or ideology. I prefer to discuss it for what it is: jobs and development. And I believe that those of us who legislate have a concrete responsibility, which is to establish clear rules so that this activity exists in a lawful and sustainable manner, rather than looking the other way.

In 2024 I voted for and defended the new Mining Procedure Code. I did so because Mendoza was still operating under a regulation from 1945, and because I believe that a rigorous procedure, with environmental assessment at each stage, community participation and legislative oversight, is the best guarantee to avoid mortgaging the present or future of the province.

San Romeleo is one of the first projects to follow this path. If the system we voted for works, we must have the consistency to say so.

The Public Hearing for the San Romeleo Project explained the benefits of mining activity for Malargüe.

San Romeleo is a smaller-scale project: $3 million in investment and 40 tons of ore per day, with estimated reserves of 257,000 tons, sufficient for approximately 20 years of operation.

But its impact is significant. It will produce the raw material for copper sulfate, the fungicide used in our vineyards that we currently import.

Energy and Environment Minister Jimena Latorre summed it up well when she spoke of a "concrete link with another strategic productive activity for Mendoza". It is copper from Malargüe for Mendoza wine: mining integrated with agriculture and viticulture, which are the foundation of our economy.

Malargüe awaits its growth and has all the resources, the deputy states in her opinion column.

And there is something that cannot be measured in tons. Malargüe is a community that for a long time has been unable to envision its future, despite being surrounded by mountains with the minerals the world demands.

A project like this returns something as valuable as employment: a sense of belonging, the certainty that a life can be built there.

Mining Director Jeronimo Shantal spoke of "economic activity and service contracting in Malargüe," and that is the way forward. We owe it to them: to the people of Malargüe, the ranchers and the youth. And we owe it to all Mendozans who for years have sustained the province's productive matrix and who need us to continue opening ourselves to the world, for our potential and our ambition to be better.

Ratification is a vote of confidence in what Mendoza can achieve when its industries work together: that mining supplies agriculture and that the growth of one drives the growth of the other.

By Mendozans, for Mendozans: that the resource is from here, that the jobs are from here, and that the benefits stay here.