President Javier Milei issued a decree Monday that turned state energy and coal mining firm Yacimientos Carboníferos Río Turbio (YCRT) into a limited company, which will allow some of its shares to be sold to private hands.

Milei’s Ley Bases flagship state reform bill declared YCRT’s coal, energy, port and rail operations subject to privatization, although the state must retain a controlling stake.

The decree follows a slew of moves toward the privatization of publicly-owned companies in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Mendoza governor Alfredo Cornejo announced that U.S. company Arc Energy would acquire energy and metals company IMPSA, in the first privatization of the Milei era. Public bank Banco Nación was also converted into a limited company on Thursday. 

YCRT operates on the coal field located around the town of Río Turbio, Santa Cruz province, and also operates port, train and energy services to transport the coal.

Monday’s decree in the Official Gazette bears the signatures of Milei, Chief of Staff Guillermo Francos, and Economy Minister Luis Caputo. It states that the company’s stock will remain in public hands for now: the Energy Secretariat will hold 95% and the Mining Secretariat the remaining 5%. Both organisms are part of the Economy Ministry.

The company will now be called Carboeléctrica Río Turbio Sociedad Anónima. YCRT’s assets will be transferred to the new company. This includes its workers, whose employment contracts will now adhere to the employment legislation that applies to private companies.

In line with the Ley Bases, the decree said the company can now “organize a shared property program” or “incorporate private capital participation, while the national state must keep control or hold a majority of the share capital.”

Born as Yacimientos Carboníferos Fiscales in 1958, YCRT was privatized in 1994 and re-nationalized in 2002. Since then it has maintained an irregular legal status, since its management was taken over by the state, something normally done temporarily, and it was never officially changed to a state company.