Kulfas launched the facilitation table of the Federal Mining Plan and assured that the sector must develop in a "federal and sustainable" way | GEMERA

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• Gemera
• 31/07/2020

The Minister of Productive Development, Matías Kulfas, launched today the facilitation table of the Strategic Mining Plan, assured that the activity will be “protagonist” of the Argentine development in the next year and affirmed that mining should be done with a “federal” and “sustainable” look that seeks consensus.
“We have to aim at the development of a sector that is going to be a protagonist in the next decades, but we have to do it well”, urged the head of the Productive Development portfolio to national officials, civil society representatives, businessmen and trade unionists of the sector.
The virtual event, organized by the Secretary of Mining, Alberto Hensel, is a meeting of the facilitating table for the construction of the Strategic Plan for Mining Development that proposes to initiate a dialogue between the different actors of the sector in search of consensus.
We want to develop mining in Argentina, but it has to be sustainable, with an environmental dimension, with prevention of environmental damage through serious work,” said Hensel. There is a lot of discussion about this in the world, and not always with the appropriate scientific bases, which is why the presence of (Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Roberto) Salvarezza and (CONICET president, Ana) Franchi indicate that we want to provide a vision of sustainable mining that incorporates the necessary safeguards to produce while taking care of the environment,” explained the minister.
Likewise, Kulfas said: “We need a federal development plan and without a doubt mining and its suppliers can make Argentina have a more harmonious and federal development” and in that sense he considered that he aims at “an inclusive mining, which generates local economic development, which participates in a chain of SMEs, which are incorporated into universities. That is to say: let us not be an extractive enclave but an innovative and integrated chain. And that the effect of development is seen in the communities through an improvement in the quality of life and infrastructure (health, education, roads, etc.) and a reduction in inequality.
To that end, the minister said that it is necessary “a commitment from the business and union sectors and a leading participation of the scientific system with state control” and predicted that mining could be a “fundamental” activity in the economic and social agreement and with an increase in the country’s exports, which would result in an improvement in the dollar restrictions.
Finally, Kulfas referred to the Argentine provinces where there is no mining activity and said: “We have to find a way to develop where there is no mining and that is based on consensus and not on impositions”.
In turn, Secretary Hensel said: “This invitation should not be the plan of a government or a secretariat but the contribution of all sectors involved from a broad vision, driven by the construction of the common good and the dignity of the person. This is the enormous challenge that lies ahead of us.
And he added: “We must achieve a consensual and articulated vision even in dissent so that we can determine the role that mining should have or will have in the economic and social development of our country.
For his part, Salvarezza said that in order to think about mining in the long term “it is very important to emphasize the articulation and to contemplate science, technology and the environment in order to have a transversal view and to build the social license that is so important”.
“The science has to be there, in the discussion, providing rationality and data, looking at what is done elsewhere so that this is done with the greatest transparency and leaving aside extreme positions that hinder the necessary consensus,” he added.
Finally, Franchi said that addressing mining development requires “thinking seriously about the environment in the research and in the social arena,” and assured that the 30 CONICET professionals specialized in mining will contribute accurate research in the face of “a lot of information that is circulating that is not founded.

Source: Ministerio de Desarrollo Productivo.