Matías Argarate – Patagonia Gold

For more than two decades, Matías Argarate has built his career at the intersection of law, mining, and public trust—an environment where regulatory stability, environmental stewardship, and community engagement are inseparable from business success. As Legal Affairs Manager and Company Secretary for Patagonia Gold, he navigates some of the most complex legal and social dynamics in Argentina’s mining sector, helping the company advance major projects while ensuring that transparency, integrity, and collaboration remain at the center of its work. Mining carries inherent uncertainty, he notes, but leadership grounded in values can create clarity amid constant challenges.

Matías Argarate | Patagonia Gold | Legal Affairs Manager & Secretary

Patagonia Gold is a publicly listed mining company with assets concentrated across Argentina’s southern provinces, where it explores and develops gold and silver deposits. Its flagship open-pit project in Río Negro is under construction, and the company continues to evaluate new underground mining opportunities while managing a diverse exploration portfolio. Argarate’s role touches every stage of this evolving landscape, from early permitting to long-term operations, and from community dialogue to international governance.

Navigating regulatory complexity

Long timelines, heavy upfront risk, and the need for unwavering regulatory predictability define mining in Argentina. Exploration alone can take nearly a decade before any economic return is possible, and only a fraction of projects ever reach production.

That reality shapes the legal work behind Patagonia Gold’s strategy—and underscores the need for regulatory frameworks that remain stable across political cycles.

Argarate explains that maintaining confidence in the rules of the game is fundamental for attracting both local and foreign investors.

“Only one out of hundreds of exploration projects becomes a mine, and the investment required for years is entirely at risk,” he says.

For mining companies, the most significant challenge is ensuring that long-term commitments—such as tax incentives, investment guarantees, foreign exchange policies, and environmental permitting systems—remain consistent enough for projects to reach maturity. Because provinces, rather than the federal government, administer natural resources, each jurisdiction has its own permitting processes, timelines, and environmental procedural regulations. Some require public hearings, consultation with Indigenous communities, or legislative approval for environmental impact assessments.

In certain provinces, open-pit metal mining or specific chemical processes are restricted by law. Patagonia Gold operates in some of these jurisdictions, which means the company must engage directly with communities and local authorities to foster understanding of modern mining practices, water use, environmental controls, and economic benefits.

These regulatory complexities, Argarate says, represent both the central challenge and a key reason why mining requires strong, values-driven leadership.

“It is a complex and evolving framework, but stability and clarity are essential if the industry is to grow responsibly,” he says.

Aligning business objectives with environmental & social priorities

For Patagonia Gold, business strategy and environmental stewardship are not competing priorities but fully interdependent. The company’s long-term viability depends on its ability to build trust—through rigorous environmental controls, transparent permitting processes, and meaningful engagement with communities.

“Today, mining is simply not viable unless it is carried out under sustainability principles, with environmental protection and social impact as top priorities,” Argarate says.

That philosophy shapes how the company approaches its projects, including ensuring that the tax revenue generated by mining activity directly benefits local communities through infrastructure, employment, training, and environmental programs. Patagonia Gold works closely with provincial and municipal governments, landowners, local stakeholders, and Indigenous communities, recognizing that social license is not a one-time achievement but an ongoing responsibility.

The legal team plays a central role in fostering this approach. With over 20 years of industry experience, Argarate’s department supports compliance with environmental, labor, safety, and ethical standards, ensuring that every site—regardless of province—operates under consistent corporate policies. Transparency mechanisms, from whistleblower channels to audits and incident-reporting systems, are built into operations to ensure traceability and accountability.

“We encourage transparency at every level of the company,” he says. “It strengthens our culture and helps us anticipate risks before they escalate.”

Supporting major growth projects

As Patagonia Gold enters a period of significant development, Argarate and his team are supporting the company’s two major upcoming projects. The first is the Calcatreu deposit, an open-pit gold and silver project in Río Negro that received environmental approval in late 2024. Construction began in early 2025, with completion expected in the first half of 2026. Initial ore production is planned to begin shortly after.

The project is advancing rapidly, representing not only the company’s most important construction milestone but also a critical step toward expanding economic activity in the region. Argarate and his team manage permitting compliance, contract negotiations, stakeholder agreements, and environmental oversight throughout construction.

The second project, an underground metal mine in another Argentine jurisdiction, is undergoing environmental impact review. Development is planned for the second half of 2026, contingent on regulatory approval. For this project, as with Calcatreu, the legal team works closely with environmental specialists, engineers, community relations teams, and government authorities to ensure that the project progresses under best-in-class standards.

Strengthening coordination across departments—Operations, Exploration, Environment, HR, Finance, and Community Relations—remains one of Argarate’s top priorities for the years ahead. A preventive legal mindset, he notes, is essential in a rapidly expanding operational environment.

Leadership grounded in integrity & collaboration

Leading in the mining industry has given Argarate a clear understanding of what effective leadership requires: foresight, consistency, and a deep respect for the people behind every project. This begins with integrity, a principle that anchors every decision he makes.

“Integrity is not a declarative value,” he says. “It is a daily practice.”

The second core lesson he emphasizes is anticipation. In an industry shaped by shifting regulations, sensitive social dynamics, and operational risks, leaders must detect early warning signs and prevent issues rather than merely respond to them. This proactive approach is woven into his leadership style—and into Patagonia Gold’s legal and compliance frameworks.

But mining also demands multidisciplinary collaboration. Engineers, geologists, environmental specialists, lawyers, and community leaders each bring essential perspectives. Argarate describes leadership not as issuing directives but as building spaces where diverse expertise can merge to create well-informed decisions.

Transparency completes this leadership philosophy. Honest, timely communication with authorities, employees, contractors, and communities builds the trust that enables sustainable mining.

Hiring practices also reflect these values. Argarate prioritizes character—integrity, empathy, responsibility, teamwork—over credentials alone. Retaining talent, he says, requires an environment where people feel respected, empowered, and connected to meaningful work.

His own career path began far from mining. He first explored medicine before shifting to law out of a strong sense of justice and respect for individual rights. Early internships exposed him to corporate and commercial work, but it was his transition into the mining department of a major Argentine law firm—and later, his LL.M. studies in the United States—that clarified his calling. Moving in-house at VALE and eventually joining Patagonia Gold allowed him to participate directly in business strategy, operations, and long-term planning.

That decision set the trajectory for his greatest professional challenges, including leading the company through a complex corporate transition from the United Kingdom to Canada, relocating its headquarters, navigating cross-border regulatory frameworks, and completing a reverse takeover to list on the TSX Venture Exchange. This process required robust cross-border governance and capital markets compliance oversight.

Looking ahead, Argarate’s focus is clear: strengthening corporate governance, supporting major project development, and building a legal team defined not only by expertise but by values. Patagonia Gold is entering a transformative period, and its leadership—anchored in trust, integrity, and collaboration—will continue to guide the company as it advances sustainable mining across Argentina.