The Government of Rio Negro has ratified a letter of intent proposing a strategic partnership between public companies in the province and the Canadian mining company Grosso Group Management Ltd. for the development of projects relating to prospecting, exploration and exploitation of mining deposits in the whole territory. This particular agreement will be valid for five years. However, the relationship between the province of Rio Negro and the mining company, headed by Canadian Joseph Grosso, was highlighted last year when a similar agreement was reached.

According to government decree No. 1255, the letter of intent has as its aim to “develop the mining potential of the Rio Negro province through the exploitation of its own natural resources”.

In this case, the agreement seeks to establish “a common working framework that allows for future cooperation between the signatories”.

The document, which furthers the so-called “strategic” partnership, was signed last year by Joseph Grosso and by the Secretary for the Public Companies Ministry, Gabriel Savini, although it does not come into force until the 24^th of this month.

Grosso Group is based in Vancouver (Canada) and has special headquarters in Sierra Grande.

One of the main stated objectives of the partnership is to “develop the potential of exploratory mining in the Rio Negro territory through the comprehensive exploitation of its natural resources, capitalizing on the experience and expertise of Grosso and its affiliated companies”. (ADN)

Source: Oro Sucio Blog

Is the Government of Rio Negro making a mistake with Joseph Grosso?

Joseph Grosso is 67 years old and is the founder and CEO of IMA Exploration Inc. He was born in Rome, just after the end of the war. In 1959 he emigrated to Canada and did what his family had been doing since the end of the seventeenth century: he started working in the clothing industry. He manufactured and sold clothes until the beginning of the 1980s when the market started to take a downward turn. Years later he emerged as a consultant. In around 1990 he travelled to Argentina to visit his sister and it was then he had a chance meeting with the geologist Vicente Mendez.

Mendez convinced him that Argentina had great potential as a place to find mineral deposits.

The government of Carlos Menem and Domingo Cavallo granted the mining sector the most beneficial legal, administrative and tax framework, applying World Bank policies for economic growth to the letter. At that time, Mendez and Grosso formed a company and started buying up land to drill through “like sewing machines”, as old Joe likes to say. Currently, and after many failures, Inversiones Mineras Argentinas (the local name for IMA Exploration) has a market value of 150 million dollars and sells itself as the “new giant of silver”.