silver standard has good relations with the local, provincial, and national governments in argentina. provincial governors have wide autonomy, so some places are mining-friendly, while others are not. but the jujuy and salta provinces, where pirquitas and diablillos are located, both welcome mining.

so if you hear a story about meridian being forced to give up on its esquel project due to environmental problems in argentina, that is a different province. it's the difference between trying to build a mine in nevada or new york.

this is a long article, and it covers just about all of latin america. here is the excerpt on silver standard:

The bad press Argentina gets for its mining restrictions generally comes from uninformed media sources that give the impression of some sort of monolithic resistance to mining activities. In fact Argentina's openness to mining is not in doubt. The regulations on local mining are at the provincial level. If a specific province is averse to mining then it's a zone to be avoided. At the moment the worst "no go" zone is La Pampa, where we only know of one player, Orocobre (ORE.ax). This province won't allow any open-cut mining of any sort. Ironically it is Argentina's largest producer of salt, but this comes from lakebed mining. La Rioja is another problem spot, as are the well-documented problems in Chubut and Mendoza. On the other hand, there are some provinces, which welcome miners with open arms and relish with glee the addition of restrictions in the "problem" provinces as it means more exploration for them. The best places to go fossicking in Argentina are Jujuy (where Silver Standard is developing its massive Pirquitas mine), Catamarca (where the Bajo de la Alumbrera mine has been operating for over ten years), San Juan (with a myriad of miners moving and shaking), Salta (nothing much in production but open to exploration and development) and Santa Cruz (where a swathe of precious metals mines and projects are moving ahead).

http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/...