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Mining and Mountain Environments in Southern Mendoza (Argentina)

A Periodisation of the Extractive Cycles (1929-1976)
Osvaldo Sironi, Facundo Rojas, Diego Bombal et Fernando Ruiz Peyré
Cet article est une traduction de :
Ambientes mineros de montaña en el sur de Mendoza (Argentina) [es]

Résumé

The Argentinean Mining Code (1887) guaranteed the extraction of minerals to promote investment in the country's mining development, and moderate progress was observed since the end of the 19th century, especially in metalliferous mining, until the First World War. Subsequently, as a consequence of the discoveries of hydrocarbons and minerals suitable for steelmaking and the impact of World War II, the industrialisation process that the country was going through acquired a significant acceleration, forcing the National State to assume a leading role in the evaluation and exploitation of non-renewable natural resources, since private enterprise was neither prepared nor determined to face the significant emerging risks of this type of activity. Our study area, located in the south of the current territory of the province of Mendoza, Argentina, has been a political and cultural frontier zone. The rugged mountainous terrain of the area favoured the deployment of renewed resource appropriation logics by the dominant elites from the mid-19th century onwards. Specifically, in the current departments of the south of the province (San Rafael and Malargüe) a large number of mining ventures were developed at different scales according to a geology equally diverse and rich in mineral resources, both in the Andes Mountain Range. The exploitation of these deposits, which exceeds the traditional metalliferous variety, led to diversification of extraction and, in some cases, the transformation of minerals, within the socio-environmental historical context of the capitalism of the 20th century.

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To the Highlands.3 project (EU-H2020-MSCA-RISE GA no 872328) for funding this work.
To Martín Rizzo (UNCuyo) and Daniel Grilli (UNCuyo) for sharing their geo-reference databases and photographs.

Introduction

1At the beginning of the 20th century, following World War I, coal and oil became crucial in the process of substitutive industrialisation in Argentina, encouraging the exploitation of non-metalliferous minerals and key inputs for construction and industry (Catalano, 2004). At the same time, diversification in the extraction of metalliferous and energy minerals was promoted, with polymetallic deposits through gallery systems being the most important.

2The study area encompasses a mining space of approximately 65,000 km² in southern Mendoza (Fig. 1), situated within the High Andes, Patagonian Steppe, and Plains and Plateau Montane ecoregions (Morello et al., 2018). It’s characterised by a marked biogeographic diversity along the west-east altitudinal gradient, ranging from the high cordillera bordering Chile to valleys, plains, and volcanic areas, such as La Payunia (Prieto, 1998). Annual precipitation varies between 750 mm in the mountainous zone and 300 mm towards the east. While in the highlands, the water source is primarily winter snowfall. In the eastern areas, it depends on the Diamante, Atuel, and Grande rivers, as well as summer rains and local springs.

3The aim of this paper is to understand the role of the main socioeconomic actors in the advances, crises and setbacks of mining in southern Mendoza during the Argentinean Interventionist State -1929–1976- (Rapoport 2000), which had a substantial impact on the policies for the promotion of mining and metallurgical activity. Within this framework, this paper aims to provide a preliminary description and to explain the cycles of reactivation and stagnation in relation to the ideological and political trends, as well as the socioeconomic models applied, which have led to the diversification of the mining matrix in the study area. To a large extent, this mining matrix was structurally dependent on state impulse since it was directly or indirectly subsidised through public policies, credit lines and mining promotion laws. On the contrary, economic openness or a lack of state regulation threatened its continuity. First, we hypothesize that, factors such as the richness of the deposits, the size of the exploitations, the domestic market as a production destination, and the role of state agencies such as Fabricaciones Militares (FM), Yacimientos Carboniferos Fiscales (YCF) and Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica (CNEA), conditioned the operation of this productive matrix, making it vulnerable to changes in economic policy after the 1970s, when there was a retraction of the state and various impulses for economic opening and liberalisation.

4Additionally, this paper is based on specific characteristics of mountain regions. We address the fact that these areas, due to their low population density, richness in strategic resources and remoteness from political centres, tend to be treated as “sacrifice zones” (Saleth & Varov, 2023). They’re also vulnerable territories in the face of climate change or global environmental change, which has prompted recent research on their particular situation (Wymann von Dach & Ruiz Peyré, 2020; Bardy-Durchhalter et al., 2022; Branca and Haller, 2021; Hasenauer et al., 2024).

Geohistoric Overview and Study Area

5In our study, there is a clearly mountainous area such as the Andes Mountains. There are also two culturally, environmentally, and economically linked areas: the broad Andean foothills and the Patagonian plateaus, as well as the volcanic fields of Payunia, which are situated in ecotones and interfaces with broad arid plains (Neme & Gil 2022). In the latter case, although they aren’t strictly defined as mountains, social activities and environmental processes are strongly influenced by the large Andean mass located in the vicinity, both geographically and socioculturally. In Southern Mendoza (figure 1), the control of resources and the design of extractivist economic policies played a central role in territorial and socio-environmental transformations, insofar as the capitalist socioeconomic order structured an institutional, legal, and scientific-technological system that legitimised human intervention in the environment.

6The first mining mentions in our study area date from 1783 to 1784, when the Cabildo, in a memorial to Viceroy Vértiz, denounced tar mines near the Diamante River and “inexhaustible salt mines of excellent salt” close to the mountain range (Undiano and Gastelú 1836, p. 6. Our translation). Even earlier, Pehuenche communities traded tar and salt in towns founded by the conquistadores. Governor Pascual Segura’s expedition (1846) revealed the region’s mining potential. In 1876, the Mining Exploration Company documented copper mines in Las Choicas, San Rafael (Lavandaio & Catalano, 2004). Several travellers, scientists, and technicians—Amigorena (1780), Bodenbender (1892), Groeber (1939), Nicolli et al. (1973) among others—documented the regional mineralogical potential between the late 18th and 20th centuries. These actors, along with the press, played a crucial role in consolidating pressure groups and shaping the development of later extractivist policies. Local studies acknowledge that, despite its significance, mining has been a relatively neglected topic in traditional historical and sociological studies. However, the main research precedents that provide a detailed review of the history of mining in the province are the works of Cueto (2003), Lavandaio and Catalano (2004), Wagner (2014), Sironi (2020) and Sironi & Ruiz Peyré (2025).

7In 1887, the Mining Code of the Argentine Republic came into force, which, together with other state policies, modernised mineral extraction and promoted investment in the country’s mining sector in line with the liberal agro-export model. From the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in a national context characterised by an economy dependent on the external market based on the production of agricultural and livestock raw materials for export, there was an increase in the extraction of metalliferous minerals on a scale previously unknown (Rojas, 2013).

8After the First World War, world markets became more complex in their demand, requiring, in addition to metalliferous minerals, energy and industrial minerals. Technological innovations applied to industrial production relied on these minerals to promote post-war economic recovery, and countries such as Argentina deepened import substitution and expanded the matrix directed at sectors like steel and ferroalloys. The economic changes following the Great Depression and the subsequent World Economic and Financial Crisis of 1929 deepened this model. In Argentina, this crisis led to the exhaustion of the agro-export model and laid the groundwork for the import-substituting industrialisation (ISI) model and to a new model more oriented to the domestic market. The exploration and discovery of minerals suitable for steelmaking (tungsten, tin, iron, lead, zinc, sulfur, among others) increased.

  • 1 Developmentalism promotes growth and industrialisation, although it reinforces external dependence (...)
  • 2 Dependency theory holds that the world economic order follows an industrial centre-agricultural per (...)

9In the following decades, the impact of the Second World War accelerated the industrialisation process that the country was undergoing, compelling the National State to assume the significant economic risks associated with evaluating and exploiting non-renewable natural resources. The socioeconomic order of Argentina (and the province of Mendoza) was based on the theoretical principles of the developmentalist economic school1, which coexisted with debates anchored in the dependency theory2 and its different partisan and ideological variants (Torrado, 1992).

10In summary, between 1930 and 1976, the Argentine State was characterised by a growing participation in the economy, strengthened the domestic market, and expanded productive infrastructure, leading to a profound transformation of the national territory. In a mountainous region such as southern Mendoza, these dynamics led to the consolidation of productive policies focused on exploiting natural resources —such as oil and minerals— that responded to both the demands of industrial development and the State’s strategic interests. Likewise, this model of industrial development involved a socio-territorial construction, based on the emergence of new towns and communication routes in mountainous environments that allowed the movement and settlement of people seeking new horizons. A significant limitation during these decades was state regulations that discouraged foreign mining investment in “border security zones” for reasons of “national security”. In this case, these zones included most of the Andes mountain range bordering Chile (Bombal, 2020). This wouldn’t be reversed until 1990.

  • 3 Federal interventions were established under the dictatorship known as the National Reorganisation (...)

11March 24, 1976, marked the beginning of the darkest political period in the history of the country under the de facto presidency of Jorge Rafael Videla3. In this bureaucratic-authoritarian state framework and with a neoliberal-corporate economic management that gave rise to the “aperturist” accumulation model (Torrado, 1992; Canelo, 2004). The application of this economic model to mining activity was consolidated with the enactment of Law No. 22.095, which was the result of pressure from foreign companies and the military authorities, allowing the liberalisation of fiscal mining zones, the reduction of official prospecting activities and the closure of mineralogical research bodies (Lavandaio & Catalano, 2004). However, mining investment driven by international capital only materialized during the 1990s, thanks to a new regulatory framework (Bombal, 2005).

Figure 1: Study area, mountain regions, irrigated areas and administrative boundaries

Figure 1: Study area, mountain regions, irrigated areas and administrative boundaries

Own elaboration based on: Bombal et al. 2023, SIAT Mendoza 20244

Methodology

12The research was based on an exhaustive survey of primary and secondary sources, aimed at geolocating and categorising mining projects according to the type of mining activities, as well as to periodise the mining cycles in southern Mendoza. The current municipalities of Malargüe and San Rafael comprise the investigated region. Metalliferous areas are concentrated in the Andean ecoregion (5200-2000 masl), while hydrocarbons and industrial and energy minerals are located towards the east (2000-500 masl).

13From an environmental history perspective, we searched, analysed and interpreted data from primary and secondary sources: National Mining Statistics, the Mining Cadastre of Mendoza (2020), the Geographic Information System of the provincial Ministry of Energy5 and newspaper articles on mining and hydrocarbons.

14The data collection phase with mixed method (qualitative and quantitative) lasted three months, allowing us to:

  1. locate and classify mineral and hydrocarbon resources,

  2. establish a chronological and geographical sequence of exploitations, and

  3. identify the main political and business actors in shaping the extractive region, thus filling the gaps in institutional primary sources.

15The qualitative interpretation and subsequent categorisation made it possible to conduct a statistical analysis based on methods applied in the region’s mining history (Sironi, 2020).

16For the statistical analysis of the time series of mining concessions included in this study (1929–1976), the moving average technique was employed to smooth short-term fluctuations and highlight underlying trends in the data. This statistical tool helps reduce the noise inherent in episodic variations, facilitating a more straightforward interpretation of relevant political-structural patterns, particularly in contexts where data exhibit high variability due to unstable political and institutional conditions.

17The qualitative interpretation of the 1929–1976 period in Argentina is based on the historical-sociological definition of capital accumulation models proposed by Susana Torrado (1992), who identifies phases articulated with the social structure, population reproduction, and state intervention strategies. Within this framework, two key moments are distinguishable: the Import Substitution Industrialisation (ISI) process between 1930 and 1945, and the Welfare State period from 1945 to 1976.

The Political Organisation of the Mining Space: Historical-Environmental Reconstruction of the Role of the State (1929–1976)

18In the environmental history of mining in mountainous regions of Mendoza during the 20th century, mining territories —with their environmental liabilities and patrimonial debris—are configured as spaces where technological and resource control (mineral, financial, and human) define particular biopolitical and social characteristics (Wagner, 2014). These are spatial and socio-environmental configurations where political, economic, legal and environmental aspects, oriented to the control of natural resources, co-produce meanings and disputes around the regional productive matrix.

19It should be noted that mining in the mountainous areas of southern Mendoza presents a series of particularities derived from its physical geography (snow and very low temperatures during most of the year) and its social organisation, characterised by low population density and the absence of major urban centres in the vicinity. This, combined with the fact that the mining areas were located on altitudinal gradients exceeding 2500 meters above sea level or in areas with lower altitudes but complicated accessibility, complicated the operational capacity for mining. An example was the unfinished railroad line in Bardas Blancas (Malargüe) (1943–1944). However, oil exploitation, located in areas with lower altitude and other types of investment in exploration, overcame these limitations. These difficulties were compounded by cyclical national economic crises, which hindered the construction of adequate roads and the installation of mining infrastructure, although oil activity proved more resilient to economic downturns.

  • 6 In contrast to the north of the province, the first oil extractions date back to 1886 with the foun (...)

20Hydrocarbons played a central role in the productive model of southern Mendoza6. Oil exploitation began in 1907 with the Compañía Argentina del Petróleo de San Rafael and was further expanded in 1925 with the establishment of the Río Atuel Ltd. Company. As for solid fuels —fossil coals, asphaltites, and peat— the first records date back to the 19th century, with the discovery of the Eloisa mine, explored by Dr. José Salas in the Atuel-Diamante basin. Subsequently, Fiscal Coal Fields (YCF) established facilities in the area.

  • 7 Asphaltites, coal and oil were extracted in these mines.

21Asphaltites, referred to as “carbonised asphalts” by Bodenbender, were the most important solid fuels, particularly during World War II, when the scarcity of imports encouraged their local exploitation. The most active mines in the 1940s were Los Castaños-Mallín Largo, La Valenciana, Aída, Mercedes, Los Vascos, Sierra de Reyes and General San Martín, all in Malargüe (Revista de la Cámara de Comercio de San Rafael 1946)7. This mining boom allowed the laying of the railway branch between San Rafael and Malargüe (“black gold railroad branch”), whose extension project towards the Patagonian regions was unfinished in 1948.

22Unlike other extractive activities, oil production stood out for its continuity despite economic fluctuations and changes in management. According to the 1981 Mining Statistics, between 1926 and 1970, the accumulated oil production in the region reached 62 millions m³, with more than 95% of the total coming from Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF). These data reflect a state intervention that the government sustained for almost half a century. YPF’s monopoly position in the 20th century, controlling the energy system based on fossil fuels, was nodal and differed from other types of mining. The centrality of hydrocarbons —promoted from Buenos Aires—, and YPF in particular, was not only economically important but also closely tied to identity, associated with various forms of nationalism and ideas of regional development (Solberg, 1986), as well as to the configuration of mountainous environments with infrastructure works that allowed for spatial connection and territorial domination of hydrocarbon extractivism. It has a territorial pattern similar to that described by Hughes (2012) for Central Asia.

23The exploitation of uranium represented a particular case, linked to the national nuclear project and the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA). The Huemul mine operated between 1952 and 1975, processing concentrates in Malargüe. After its depletion, the activity continued at the Dr. Baulies mine in the La Pintada mining district, Sierra Pintada, San Rafael. Studies on socio-environmental impacts in the south of the province reveal that mining activities have harmed socio-cultural ecosystems, contaminating waters and soils, and causing the dumping of toxic waste and hydrocarbon spills. In addition, they transformed the landscape, destroyed habitats, reduced biodiversity and deteriorated the quality of life of local and indigenous communities (Rapoport et al., 2001; Estigarribia et al., 2014; Soto, 2021).

24Based on the data collected from the sources as mentioned above, we developed a mineralogical taxonomy, represented in Table 1 and Figure 2, to systematise the main types of resources present in the area and their spatial distribution during the study period. Likewise, our analyses presents different temporal pulses of acceleration of mining concession requests, as well as specific periods of greater granting of concessions and/or activation of mining deposits, in accordance with the economic policies outlined by the provincial governments –framed in conservative and/or authoritarian ideological guidelines–, which gave rise to various processes of subsumption of labor to national and, mainly, transnational capital. These time lapses coincide with the periodisation proposed in this research, based on Susana Torrado’s models of capital accumulation (1992) (Figure 3).

Table 1. Mineralogical/hydrocarbon taxonomy and concession areas between 1929 and 1976

  • 8 Iron, lead, copper, silver, gold, etc.
  • 9 Basic inputs for various industries in the construction sector: potassium salts, borates, barite, b (...)
  • 10 Uranium, coal, tar, oil shale, etc.
  • 11 Oil fields (hydrocarbons) deserve a specific study due to the volume of information present in the (...)

Municipality

Metalliferous Minerals8

Industrial Minerals9

Energy Minerals10

Hidrocarbons11

Undeclared Taxonomy

TOTAL

Concession Area (has)

Malargüe

47

29

13

76

2

167

211.923.39

San Rafael

57

57

14

32

1

161

31.919

TOTAL

104

86

27

108

3

328

Concession Area (has)

125.097,11

159.339,19

17.634,24

243.842,39

285,67

546.198,60

Source: Portal GIS y Padrón Minero 2020.

Figure 2. Location of mining and hydrocarbon concessions in southern Mendoza (1929–1976)

Figure 2. Location of mining and hydrocarbon concessions in southern Mendoza (1929–1976)

Own elaboration based on: Bombal et al. 2023, SIAT Mendoza 2024

Figure 3. Cycles of expansion and retraction of mining/oil concessions in southern Mendoza between 1929 and 1976 (moving average = 5)

Figure 3. Cycles of expansion and retraction of mining/oil concessions in southern Mendoza between 1929 and 1976 (moving average = 5)

Source: SIAT Mendoza y Padrón Minero 2020

First period: 1929–1945

  • 12 It is a political party that claims to represent both conservative and liberal ideas, and has activ (...)
  • 13 For the years 1940-1941, we do not have official data. Provincial public works were very intense du (...)

25In the context of a global economic and political crisis, and with the accelerated rise of nationalist/totalitarian ideological movements, the Neo-Oligarchic State, also known as the “infamous Decade”, was consolidated in Argentina (Oszlak, 2009), leading to a series of successive military coups against constitutional governments. In this context, the Dirección General de Fabricaciones Militares (DGFM) was created in 1941, a state-owned company endowed with broad capabilities (such as exploring, exploiting and requesting mines throughout the country) to give impetus to the industrialist model promoted by military leaders (Sironi & Ruiz Peyré, 2025). At the provincial level, the referents of these political tendencies are embodied in the federal interventions (imposed from the national executive power) in the coups d’État of 1930 and 1943 and during the neoconservative governments of the Democratic Party (PD)12. This period coincided with the emergence of nationalist ideologies in both Chile and Argentina, which viewed the Andes as an empty border region to be incorporated into “the nation” (Núñez, 2014). These governments focused their economic project on public infrastructure works —roads, water and railroads— and on mining and hydrocarbon activities (Raffa & Rodríguez Vázquez, 2022). This is observed with the increase in the number of hectares under concession. According to National Statistics13, the southern district of Mendoza Province produced 260 tons of minerals in these years, with industrial minerals standing out. As for the production of hydrocarbons, a total of 52.000 m3 was obtained. It’s worth mentioning that from 1942 to 1945, there was an exponential boom in oil and industrial mineral production (mainly asphaltites and coals), multiplying the volume of extraction tenfold.

Second period: 1946–1957

  • 14 From its origins, the most vulnerable sectors supported the PJ, including the working class and par (...)
  • 15 President Juan Perón, in reference to the mineral substances needed to promote mining activity and (...)

26During this period, the social regime of capitalist accumulation in Argentina was highlighted by the “justicialist strategy” (Torrado, 1992), which was applied at the provincial level (Ortega, 2018) in the constitutional governments of the Justicialist Party (PJ)14, as well as in the federal interventions of the de facto governments in the self-styled Liberating Revolution—overthrow of the government of Juan Domingo Perón (PJ) —. The mining policy promoted during these years focused on systematic and regional prospecting and exploration, aiming at the discovery of deposits with a large volume of reserves, mainly disseminated, polymetallic and exploitable in the open pit, as well as the promotion of industrial minerals that were in demand in the post-war international markets (Lavandaio & Catalano, 2004). These measures were applied following the bases of the First Five-Year Plan, characterised, among other things, by establishing a strong protectionism for the mining-based industry and the manufacturing industry15. The provincial government of Faustino Picallo was in line with these instated policies. According to official data, the southern territory produced 827 tons of minerals during this period and extracted a volume of 13.000 m³ of oil.

27The period comprising the coup d’État (1955–1958) wasn’t deep enough to radically transform the strategy of capitalist accumulation. However, it was extremely corrosive in social and political matters, as well as in terms of democratic values and ideological tolerance (Torrado, 1992).

Third period: 1958–1976

  • 16 Agreement signed between the UN and Argentina in order to carry out geological explorations in the (...)
  • 17 Plan Mendoza, a prospecting and exploration program for mineral resources in the southeastern provi (...)
  • 18 The new pro-dictatorship authorities of the CNEA had a strong influence on the increase of uranium (...)

28Between 1973 and 1979, mining policy underwent a significant shift, driven by the conservative governments of the PD and the federal interventions of both civil-military dictatorships. These policies were aligned with the framework of the 1962–1968 Cordilleran Plan16. Subsequently, the Plan Mendoza17 was carried out, which aimed to develop a systematic work of prospecting and exploration of mineral resources in that sector of the provincial territory that wasn’t included in the Cordilleran Plan (mainly in the southern region). This Mining Plan, together with YPF and CNEA, allowed the growth of explorations in the southern territory of the province, standing out for the start-up of one of the most significant uranium projects in the country -Sierra Pintada18 deposit- and an intense hydrocarbon exploitation in Puesto Rojas (Malargüe). As shown in Figure 2, from 1973, there was an exponential increase in hydrocarbon exploitation in the region, coinciding with the 1973 world oil crisis and the third Peronist government (Barrera & Vitto, 2009). It should be noted that the last years of the “Plan Cordillerano” and the “Plan Mendoza” were developed within the main guidelines of the Authoritarian Bureaucratic State (Oszlak, 2009).

  • 19 Argentine Oil Workers Union
  • 20 On April 4, 1972, workers, students, and the population mobilised, which ended with an intense stat (...)
  • 21 This profound social and economic crisis was reflected in the so-called "Malargüinazo" (Los Andes, (...)

29The main political milestones during this period (in constitutional and de facto governments) were marked by important infrastructural works – hydroelectricity, roads, bridges and aqueducts —, deep socioeconomic crises and repressive and authoritarian policies — specifically during the de facto governments – that generated cycles of protests and diverse worker-popular-student uprisings: SUPE strikes19, “Mendozazo”20, “Malarguinazo”21 (Bertolotti Nento et al., 2012), among other revolts of lesser intensity.

30According to national statistical sources, between 1958 and 1976, extraction tripled compared to the previous period (1946–1957). Southern Mendoza produced 2 million tons of ore in these years, excluding the years 1965-66, 1968-69, 1971, and 1973-74, for which no official data were found. In the case of hydrocarbons, extraction reached a volume of 20.000 m3.

31During this period, both constitutional and de facto governments encouraged the attraction of investment and the promotion of mining as a state policy in the southern Mendoza. This legal framework favoured the entry of national and foreign private capital, which significantly increased mining prospecting and exploration projects. The valorisation and appropriation of mineral and hydrocarbon resources generated “promises of prosperity” on the part of provincial governments (Figure 4), while stimulating the organisation of the mining workers’ movement. However, this led to repression of labour demands. At the same time, the ancestral activities of pastoralism and subsistence agriculture in the southern provincial territories were displaced, which altered the social fabric. Young people migrated to the cities from mountain regions or were absorbed into employment in mining and oil (Ruiz Peyré, 2013; Soto, 2021). Each new concession expanded and concentrated mining property, increasing the productive capacity and economic-financial benefits of the sector. Throughout the analysis, we detected that the three models of capitalist accumulation present an extractive evolution, intensified during the Second World War (1939–1945) and the import-substitution industrialisation process (1958–1966), which was implemented at both national and provincial levels.

Figure 4. “Promises of prosperity”

Figure 4. “Promises of prosperity”

a) YPF oil well (Malargüe, 1933); b) Huemul Mine -uranium- (Malargüe, 1950s); c) Uranium treatment plant (Malargüe, 1950s); d) Workers of La Valenciana Mine -coal- (San Rafael, 1940s), e) Mining Day (Malargüe, 1955); f) Sierra Pintada Mine -uranium- (San Rafael, 1975).
Sources: Historical Archive of Malargüe and Historical Archive of San Rafael.

Final Words

32Throughout this study, it has been demonstrated that mining activity during the study period (1929–1976) was the result of intense state planning, with a significant military influence. The south of Mendoza (San Rafael and Malargüe) has been deeply influenced by the political-economic guidelines of the various governments, which, although they converge on a developmentalist-industrialist model, recognise nuances and pulses at different proposed moments. Southern Mendoza is therefore a mining territory that was heavily exploited by the national government during the period analysed, given that the periodisation and socio-political dimensions proposed by Torrado (1992) are fulfilled in a paradigmatic way.

33The analysis shows that the development of the mining production matrix in mountain environments in the south of the province was neither continuous nor uniform. Different political administrations promoted economic models with divergent interests regarding the distribution of mining royalties and the sectors that benefited from them. The period that showed the most significant investment in mining planning, both at provincial and national levels, was the so-called "Keynesian/developmentalist heyday" (1945–1966). During this stage, projects aimed at industrialisation were promoted, supported by public and private capital of both local and national origin. This impulse was complemented by the expansion of hydrocarbon exploitation, which represented a new leap in the productive and consumption scale, in line with the so-called Great Global Acceleration (McNeill & Engelke, 2014).

34The study of the historical and geographical particularities of the different regions of the Andes is central to overcoming the knowledge gaps regarding the ecological impacts and social conflicts necessary for outlining climate change adaptation strategies (Llambí & Garcés, 2021). With regard to territorial conflicts in the mountains of southern Mendoza, Magallanes (2019) notes that the notion of “land as territory” stems from social narratives emerging in contexts of conflict, where social groups are reconfigured. Analyzing the origin of these current conflicts, their local and regional particularities (Overvag et al., 2016), from a historical environmental perspective is of great importance to understand the economy, ecology and conflicts in our mountain regions.

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Notes

1 Developmentalism promotes growth and industrialisation, although it reinforces external dependence without structurally transforming Latin American economies or achieving autonomous development (Marini & Millán, 1994).

2 Dependency theory holds that the world economic order follows an industrial centre-agricultural periphery scheme. This unequal and unfavourable design for undeveloped countries imposed a subordinate role in the production of raw materials with low value-added, while the central countries obtained the most significant benefits from the self-assignment of industrial production with high value-added (Marini & Millán, 1994).

3 Federal interventions were established under the dictatorship known as the National Reorganisation Process (Diario Mendoza, March 25 1976, April 8 1976).

4 Available online http://siat.mendoza.gov.ar/data/search, retrieved October 13th, 2025.

5 Available online: https://www.mendoza.gov.ar/ordenamientoterritorial/siat/, retrieved October 13th, 2025.

6 In contrast to the north of the province, the first oil extractions date back to 1886 with the founding of the Mendocina Oil Company (Barneda, 2007), marking the beginning of an expansive stage of hydrocarbon exploitation, which consolidated the arrival of YPF in the province in 1931 (Timmermann, 2023).

7 Asphaltites, coal and oil were extracted in these mines.

8 Iron, lead, copper, silver, gold, etc.

9 Basic inputs for various industries in the construction sector: potassium salts, borates, barite, bentonite, limestone, sand, gypsum, etc.

10 Uranium, coal, tar, oil shale, etc.

11 Oil fields (hydrocarbons) deserve a specific study due to the volume of information present in the sources consulted (a total of 7470 wells).

12 It is a political party that claims to represent both conservative and liberal ideas, and has actively participated in several coups d’État.

13 For the years 1940-1941, we do not have official data. Provincial public works were very intense during this period, reflected in the exorbitant production of Portland cement (80-90% of the country's total).

14 From its origins, the most vulnerable sectors supported the PJ, including the working class and parts of the conservative sectors, such as the church and military, a situation that gradually evolved. Based on a nationalist-popular doctrine and with a trade union base, it constituted a syncretic political movement known as Peronism, which encompassed diverse currents that reflected ideological tensions throughout its history.

15 President Juan Perón, in reference to the mineral substances needed to promote mining activity and “develop” the country, stated: “I do not consider wealth to be what is under the earth but what has been extracted” (SEGEMAR 2004: 58). During the years 1946-47, the General Directorate of Solid Mineral Fuels carried out important work in the coal and asphaltite deposits in the south of Mendoza, since they were bare minerals for the development of steel and energy (Lavandaio & Catalano, 2004).

16 Agreement signed between the UN and Argentina in order to carry out geological explorations in the Andean provinces. Some photographic results are presented in Falaschi et al. (2025).

17 Plan Mendoza, a prospecting and exploration program for mineral resources in the southeastern provinces, commenced at the end of 1973 and concluded in 1976. The objective was to intensify mining activity in that area, which had been excluded from the Cordillerano Plan, in order to adapt to the National Development Plan (Law No. 19.039).

18 The new pro-dictatorship authorities of the CNEA had a strong influence on the increase of uranium production: construction of the Embalse nuclear power plant (Córdoba), expansion of the Malargüe plant (Mendoza), start of operations of the Los Adobes plant (Chubut) and creation of the company Nuclear Mendoza Sociedad del Estado (Hurtado de Mendoza 2009).

19 Argentine Oil Workers Union

20 On April 4, 1972, workers, students, and the population mobilised, which ended with an intense state repression that left several dead, wounded and arrested.

21 This profound social and economic crisis was reflected in the so-called "Malargüinazo" (Los Andes, February 7, 1972; June 7, 1972). This popular uprising originated from the closure of the Santa Cruz mine and the dismissal of 200 workers.

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Table des illustrations

Titre Figure 1: Study area, mountain regions, irrigated areas and administrative boundaries
Crédits Own elaboration based on: Bombal et al. 2023, SIAT Mendoza 20244
URL http://journals.openedition.org/rga/docannexe/image/15735/img-1.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 136k
Titre Figure 2. Location of mining and hydrocarbon concessions in southern Mendoza (1929–1976)
Crédits Own elaboration based on: Bombal et al. 2023, SIAT Mendoza 2024
URL http://journals.openedition.org/rga/docannexe/image/15735/img-2.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 151k
Titre Figure 3. Cycles of expansion and retraction of mining/oil concessions in southern Mendoza between 1929 and 1976 (moving average = 5)
Crédits Source: SIAT Mendoza y Padrón Minero 2020
URL http://journals.openedition.org/rga/docannexe/image/15735/img-3.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 47k
Titre Figure 4. “Promises of prosperity”
Crédits a) YPF oil well (Malargüe, 1933); b) Huemul Mine -uranium- (Malargüe, 1950s); c) Uranium treatment plant (Malargüe, 1950s); d) Workers of La Valenciana Mine -coal- (San Rafael, 1940s), e) Mining Day (Malargüe, 1955); f) Sierra Pintada Mine -uranium- (San Rafael, 1975).Sources: Historical Archive of Malargüe and Historical Archive of San Rafael.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/rga/docannexe/image/15735/img-4.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 151k
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Référence électronique

Osvaldo Sironi, Facundo Rojas, Diego Bombal et Fernando Ruiz Peyré, « Mining and Mountain Environments in Southern Mendoza (Argentina) »Journal of Alpine Research | Revue de géographie alpine [En ligne], 113-2 | 2025, mis en ligne le 15 décembre 2025, consulté le 18 janvier 2026. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/rga/15735 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/15d2p

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Auteurs

Osvaldo Sironi

CONICET, IANIGLA, Environmental History Group

Facundo Rojas

CONICET, IANIGLA, Environmental History Group. National University of Cuyo, Institute of Geography, Argentina

Diego Bombal

National University of Cuyo, Institute of Geography, Argentina

Fernando Ruiz Peyré

Austrian Academy of Sciences, Interdisciplinary Institute for Mountain Studies, Austria

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