In the first quarter of the year, the extraction of crude oil, both conventional and unconventional, decreased by 21.7% compared to the same period of the previous year. The extraction of crude oil and natural gas, along with support services for this activity, experienced a 2.3% year-on-year increase.
Regarding other sectors, the extraction of metal minerals showed a year-on-year decrease of 3.5%, but the extraction of non-metal minerals increased by 6% year-on-year. Lithium carbonate significantly increased by 53.4% year-on-year and by 77.9% in the cumulative quarter compared to the previous year.
The extraction of minerals for chemical product manufacturing experienced a year-on-year increase of 36.5%, while the extraction of sands and rocks increased by 20% year-on-year. Additionally, the extraction of non-metal minerals and application rocks recorded a 9.5% increase in the annual cumulative.
On the other hand, the extraction of conventional and unconventional natural gas presented a year-on-year decrease of 1.2%, and the extraction of limestone and gypsum increased by 5.2% year-on-year. The production of conventional crude oil fell by 4.8% in the last month, while the production of unconventional crude oil increased by 23.4% compared to the previous year.
Overall, the mining industrial production index increased by 2.3% in March compared to the same month last year. The data presented by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) reflects a diverse landscape in the mining industry during the first quarter of the year, with both positive and negative variations in different segments of the sector.
