Argentine MPs approved a bill early Thursday promoted by President Javier Milei that authorizes mining in ecologically sensitive areas of glaciers and permafrost, and has outraged environmentalists.
The amendment to the so-called Glacier Law, which was already approved by the Senate in February, would make it easier to mine for metals such as copper, lithium and silver in frozen parts of the Andes mountains, said AFP.
The Chamber of Deputies, Argentina's lower house of Congress, approved the amendment with 137 votes in favor, 111 against and three abstentions after nearly 12 hours of debate.
Environmentalists say the reforms will weaken protections for crucial water sources.
Thousands of people took part in a demonstration on Wednesday afternoon outside parliament, marked by isolated skirmishes with police.
Some held aloft banners with slogans such as "Water is more precious than gold!" and "A glacier destroyed cannot be restored!"
Seven Greenpeace activists were arrested earlier in the day after scaling a statue outside parliament and unfurling a banner urging lawmakers "not to betray the Argentine people."
The passage of the amendment is a new coup for Milei, who pushed through looser labor laws in February despite repeated street protests.
Nicolas Mayoraz, an MP from Milei's ruling La Libertad Avanza party, assured lawmakers that combining "environmental protection and sustainable development is possible."
Environmental activist Flavia Broffoni rubbished the government's position.
"The science is clear...there is absolutely no possibility of creating what they (the government) call a 'sustainable mine' in a periglacial environment," she told AFP after addressing the protest outside parliament.
- Lithium race -
There are nearly 17,000 glaciers or rock glaciers -- a mix of rock and ice -- in Argentina, according to a 2018 inventory.
In the northwest of the country, where mining activity is concentrated, glacial reserves have shrunk by 17 percent in the last decade, mainly due to climate change, according to the Argentine Institute of Snow Science, Glaciology and Environmental Sciences.
Milei, a free-market radical who does not believe in man-made climate change, argues the bill is necessary to attract large-scale mining projects.
Argentina is a major producer of lithium, which is critical to the global tech and green energy sectors.
The Central Bank has estimated, based on industry forecasts, that the country could triple its mining exports by 2030.
"Environmentalists would rather see us starve than have anything touched," Milei has argued.
Supporters of the reform argue that it will clear up ambiguities in the current law, from 2010, on which periglacial areas -- areas on the edges of glaciers -- can be economically developed.
"We want legal certainty, we want clear definitions," Michael Meding, director of the Los Azules copper mining project in San Juan, told AFP.
Enrique Viale, president of the Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers, told AFP that the reform threatened the water supply of "70 percent" of Argentines.
Under the current law, a scientific body designates protected glaciers and periglacial environments.
The reform would give individual provinces more powers to decide which areas need protection and which can be exploited for economic purposes.
It has been backed by the governors of northern Andean provinces with strong mining sectors, namely Mendoza, San Juan, Catamarca and Salta.
