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Mines/Argentina

Olaroz mine

Olaroz mine, Argentina. Producing, brine, mining lithium.

Why Olaroz is famous

Olaroz is a lithium brine operation on a salt pan in Jujuy province, Argentina. Rio Tinto completed its purchase of Arcadium Lithium in March 2025, and Arcadium held 66.5% of Olaroz. Rio reports record carbonate production at Olaroz in 2025, with stage 1 at full capacity and stage 2 performing as expected.1,2

Story cards

What kind of deposit

Lithium brine (salar)

Olaroz today

Where lithium is mined todayMining in Argentina

Where next

Mines

Same kind of depositSalar del Hombre Muerto (Fenix)Rio Tinto's 2025 report lists both Argentine brine operations within Arcadium Lithium.1Same kind of depositSalar de Atacama (SQM / Nova Andino Litio)Chile's brines and Jujuy's Olaroz sit on salt pans pumped for lithium.3

Deposit types

An example ofLithium brine (salar)Olaroz belongs to the lithium brine family of deposits.4

Sources

  1. Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2025 Rio Tinto plc (SEC)
  2. Salar de Olaroz (Q58623463) Wikidata
  3. Form 20-F for the year ended 31 December 2025 Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (SEC)
  4. Critical Mineral Resources of the United States (PP 1802), Chapter K: Lithium US Geological Survey

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0. Pictures: Salar de Atacama, Chile, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)); San Francisco, California: the Golden Gate bay area. Photograph, ca. 1880., Unknown (Wellcome Collection) (Public Domain Mark 1.0).