"Cal: La venta al exterior hoy es un gran negocio,” published in “Diario de Cuyo” (Province of San Juan) on 12/22/2010

If anyone thought that they were going to be the “underdogs” of the sector, due to the irruption of large scale metal mining, they were wrong: the lime companies that operate in San Juan will end the year with an historic record in sales abroad, reaching 300 thousand exported tons, according to the data of the National and Provincial mining organisms, and to the Mining Chamber of the Province of San Juan. “It’s a total record; in 2010 the lime companies will finish exporting 300 thousand tons,” said the National Mining Secretary, Jorge Mayoral enthusiastically, after going through the numbers that were sent to him by the companies. “Never was there as many lime exports as there was this year,” agreed Jaime Bergé, President of the Mining Chamber.
The figures are astonishing, when compared to those 7 years ago, when local exports reached 118 thousand tons, which means that during this last period the sector had an increase of 154 per cent. In that same period the lime companies were able to triple the installed capacity, which permits them to produce today 2.5 million tons of lime, increasing the exports to different countries in the region. The highest volume of growth between Argentina and Chile is made up of this supply, due to the fact that the Chilean mining companies buy lime for the extraction process of copper and other metals.