Tay Such Degree in Geological Sciences from Universidad Nacional del Sur and Diploma in Mining Investment Project Evaluation from the Mining Chamber of Peru. Head of Institutional Relations at Pan American Silver Argentina and professor of Legal Geology and Project Economics in the Geology career of UNRN. She has 17 years of experience in her profession, since 2006 she worked in the private sector in exploration and mining operations in companies such as Compañía Minera Aguilar S.A. and Southern Copper Argentina SRL and in the area of social sustainability and institutional relations for Pan American Silver Argentina. She practiced her profession in the public sector between 2016-2019 at the National Mining Secretariat as Director of Promotion and Development of Mining Projects. She is author and co-author of reports and presentations published from the Secretariat on topics related to mining projects portfolio, economic benefits, exploratory budgets, resource and reserves evolution, research reports on Lithium, Uranium, Copper, Silver and Potassium. She was a technical collaborator and/or lecturer for presentations at international and national mining meetings. She participated as a guest lecturer in postgraduate courses in the Mining Geology Specialization at UBA and in the Lithium Postgraduate Course at Universidad Austral. Daniel Jerez Geologist and Public Accountant graduated from the National University of Córdoba. Professor of Mining Geology and Economic Evaluation of Projects at the National University of La Rioja. Postgraduate Professor of Specialization in Mining Geology at the University of Buenos Aires. Consultant in project evaluation and mining economics. Former Head of Public Relations and Head of Planning and Project Evaluation at Pan American Silver. He was National Director of Mining Promotion at the National Mining Secretariat from 2016 to 2020. He worked 25 years in the Mining Secretariat of the Province of Córdoba. He has worked in prospecting, exploration and evaluation of deposits and in economic evaluations of lithium, gold, copper, silver and industrial minerals & rocks projects. He has published papers and articles in journals and books and has given more than 70 lectures at universities and international and national meetings on mining and sustainable development, economic benefits of mining projects, state participation in mining income, impacts of taxation on mining projects.
One of the arguments against the development of the mining industry is related to value added. In the collective unconscious there is the idea that mining is a primary activity that does not add value and therefore exports products without added value. Expressions such as "they export stone" or "they export mud" or "value must be added to mining exports" are frequent and replicated. In fact, the term "mining industry" is not used much, it is simply called "mining" and that is when (mis)qualifying adjectives such as "extractivist mining" are not added to it. How much value remains to be added to the export of a concentrate? How much of the final value of the metal does a concentrate capture? Is exporting concentrate simply exporting the "stone" in terms of value? In this paper we propose some answers to these questions from the dimensioning of the stages of value addition from the ore in the deposit to the final product, which is the metal.