Thanks to a booming lithium industry Argentina’s mining sector has now recorded 28 consecutive months of job creation, according to government data.
More than 37,000 workers were employed by the sector as of last November, a rise of more than 3,500 jobs on the same month the previous year, a report by the National Mining Secretariat found.
The surge in job creation has come, in the main, from lithium production, which has created more than 900 new jobs over the last 12 months. Just under 2,500 workers were employed solely in that sector as of last November, a rise of some 57 percent on the same period of the previous year.
Between January and November 2022, mining also generated 744 new jobs for women in Argentina, a rise of 29 percent on the previous year's tally. More than 4,000 female mining workers are now employed domestically.
Exports of mining products accounted for six percent of Argentina's total exports in February and seven percent in the first two months of this year.
In the case of lithium specifically, a total of US$58 million was exported in February, which implies year-on-year growth of 85 percent, a historical record for that month.
In the first 2 months of 2023, lithium sales abroad reached US$140 million, growing 166 percent year-on-year and representing 21 percent of total mining exports for the month.
– TIMES/NA
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