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Argentina and South Korea have agreed to deepen cooperation in the critical minerals sector, the Argentine foreign ministry announced Friday, as Seoul accelerates its push to secure strategic resource partnerships across South America.
The agreement, announced one day after South Korea struck a similar deal with Chile, seeks to promote investments and joint projects across the full supply chain, from exploration and extraction through to processing and refinement, Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno said.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung met with Argentine President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires in what Quirno described as the first visit by a South Korean head of state to Argentina in 22 years.
The Argentine presidency said the meeting centered on strengthening bilateral ties, expanding trade and investment, and developing joint projects in strategic sectors.
Separately, the Milei administration granted South Korean steelmaker and materials company Posco approval to expand lithium extraction in the northwestern province of Salta. The economy ministry said the project involves a $547 million investment and would produce 23,000 tons of lithium carbonate per year, generating more than $300 million in annual exports.
Argentina is the world's fifth-largest lithium producer, a mineral regarded as essential to the global energy transition given its central role in electric vehicle batteries and energy storage systems.
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The Buenos Aires agreement follows a parallel deal reached Thursday between Lee and Chilean President Jose Antonio Kast in Santiago.
Chile is the world's largest copper producer and second-largest lithium producer, making the two Andean nations together a commanding presence in the global supply of minerals critical to clean energy and advanced manufacturing.
South Korea, a major manufacturing economy with significant electric vehicle and battery industries, has been expanding its sourcing partnerships as competition for critical mineral supplies intensifies globally.
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