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On 8–9 April 2026 the Argentine Cámara de Diputados gave final passage (137–111 with 3 abstentions) to a bill amending Ley 26.639 (the 2010 Régimen de Presupuestos Mínimos para la Preservación de los Glaciares y del Ambiente Periglacial), after the Senate had already approved the reform in February 2026 (40–31 with 1 abstention). The Executive promulgated the law as Ley 27.804 via Decreto 271/2026, published in the Boletín Oficial on 24 April 2026. The reform narrows the federal protection floor by limiting strict protection to glaciers and periglacial geoforms with proven hydrological function, and transfers to provincial governments the authority to define the technical and scientific criteria delimiting protected areas — directly unblocking the "ABCD" copper pipeline (Agua Rica/MARA, Filo del Sol, Josemaría, Los Azules, El Pachón) and adjacent lithium and gold projects whose prior periglacial-buffer encumbrance had stalled an estimated USD 30bn of investment, ~70% in copper / gold / silver.

On 4 February 2026, Argentina and the United States signed the Framework Instrument for Securing of Supply in the Mining and Processing of Critical Minerals at the inaugural FORGE Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington, DC. The instrument commits both parties to cooperation across the critical-minerals supply chain — exploration, mining, processing, refining, and value-added manufacturing — with lithium and copper as the primary strategic targets given Argentina's position as the world's fourth-largest holder of lithium reserves and an emerging copper producer in the Salta, Catamarca, and San Juan provinces. The framework is one of eleven founding bilateral instruments signed simultaneously under the FORGE (Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement) architecture and operationalises the Trump-Milei strategic alignment as a binding supply-chain coordination instrument. Argentina's mining-export trajectory is projected to surpass USD 20bn over the next seven years under the combined RIGI + bilateral-framework investment pull.

On 6 August 2025, President Javier Milei signed Decreto 563/2025 (countersigned by Chief of Cabinet Guillermo Francos and Economy Minister Luis Caputo). Published in the Boletín Oficial on 7 August 2025 and effective the following day, the decree sets the Derecho de Exportación (DEX) rate to 0% on 231 mining-sector NCM tariff positions covering construction minerals, non-metallic minerals, metallic mining goods (including copper concentrates and iron ore), and certain mineral fuels and precious/semi-precious stones — eliminating the 4.5% baseline rate previously in force on these categories. The decree expressly repeals Decreto 308/2022, which had created an Optional Copper Export Registry that never became operational. Mining is Argentina's fifth-largest export complex and accounts for roughly 80% of provincial exports in Jujuy, San Juan, Santa Cruz, and Catamarca; the measure complements RIGI (Law 27.742) by adding a sector-wide tariff floor underneath RIGI's project-level fiscal stability.

On 9 May 2016 CMOC Group (China Molybdenum Co., HKG:3993 / SHA:603993) signed agreements to acquire Freeport-McMoRan's 56% stake in Tenke Fungurume Mining (TFM) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for USD 2.65 billion, with additional financing from China Development Bank. A concurrent transaction acquired TF Holdings' 24% stake, bringing CMOC's total to 80% with Gécamines retaining 20%. The transaction closed on 16 November 2016 following regulatory approvals from the DRC Ministry of Mines, the US CFIUS (approved without conditions), and Chinese MOFCOM. Tenke Fungurume is the world's second-largest cobalt mine and fifth-largest copper mine, located in Lualaba Province. At the time of acquisition it produced approximately 16,000 tonnes of cobalt per year (hydroxide) and 180,000 tonnes of copper cathode, representing roughly 20% of global mined cobalt supply. CMOC subsequently expanded production to approximately 50,000 tonnes of cobalt per year by 2023-2024 through the Kisanfu (KFM) discovery development — bringing combined TFM+KFM output to ~115,000 tonnes of cobalt annually, or roughly 38% of DRC cobalt production and approximately 25% of global supply from a single operator. The acquisition was the largest Chinese overseas mining transaction of 2016 and established China's dominant structural position in the cobalt supply chain at the mine level — upstream of both DRC export controls (ARECOMS quota system, filed 2025-02-22) and Chinese processing/re-export controls on battery-grade cobalt compounds. CMOC is simultaneously the world's largest cobalt producer and an entity subject to Chinese government export licensing for the same materials — a concentration structure without precedent in critical minerals. The China Development Bank provided a $2.68 billion loan facility financing the majority of the acquisition, making this an explicit policy-bank-backed strategic asset purchase consistent with NDRC guidelines on overseas critical mineral investment priorities. Sinosure provided political-risk insurance cover on the DRC exposure.