The initiative received 29 affirmative votes, 6 negative votes, and one abstention in the provincial Senate
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On a historic day for Mendoza, the provincial Senate granted final approval to the Environmental Impact Statement (DIA) for the PSJ Cobre Mendocino project, located in Uspallata.
The initiative, promoted by Governor Alfredo Cornejo, received 29 affirmative votes, 6 negative votes, and one abstention, consolidating one of the most significant advances for Mendoza's mining development in decades.
The session, which took place under a strong security operation, was marked by intense protests from far-left anti-mining groups that gathered near the Legislature.
The tense context did not prevent the Chamber from also approving the DIA for the Malargüe Western Mining District II (MDMO II) project, which covers 27 exploratory proposals in the southern department of the province. This latter initiative received 31 favorable votes and only 3 against, reinforcing the official momentum for the sector.
El resultado de la votación en el Senado.
The handling of the PSJ project was surprising due to a key political peculiarity: part of the Peronist bloc decided to support the proposal, contrary to the unified stance it had shown in the Chamber of Deputies.
Although in the hours prior there were reports that the opposition would vote as a bloc against the project, that alignment ultimately did not hold in the chamber. According to information revealed later, the decision to split the vote within Peronism had been made before the formal start of the debate.
The ruling party, represented by Cambia Mendoza, received explicit support from PRO and a sector of Peronism, which allowed for the comfortable approval of the project. The fracture of the opposition bloc reshaped the political landscape and accentuated the historic nature of the vote.
El proyecto PSJ Cobre Mendocino.
President Javier Milei's support
The legislative debate was preceded by a strong statement from President Javier Milei in support of the initiative. Through a message posted on the social network X, the president highlighted the economic significance of the project and strongly criticized Kirchnerism's stance on mining.
The President emphasized yesterday that "the Mendoza Legislature has the enormous opportunity to give final approval to the PSJ Cobre Mendocino Project, which will bring an investment of 600 million dollars to put into production a mine with an annual output of 40,000 metric tons (88,185 pounds) of copper concentrate."
Milei also pointed out that the province faces a historic opportunity after years of stagnation in the sector. "Even so, we trust that the project will be approved, because this is the closest Mendoza has come to definitively launching mining in the last 20 years," the president stated, expressing his positive expectations regarding the outcome that ultimately materialized.
With legislative approval, Mendoza enables the advancement of a project that promises to transform the province's productive matrix and attract unprecedented-scale investments to the region.
