YCRT runs the Río Turbio coal mine, in the southern province of Santa Cruz, along the Andes border with Chile.

The company was launched including extraction facilities, sewage treatment, a railway, a port terminal in Rio Gallegos, and a fleet of three ships.

In 1993, then-president Carlos Menem issued the 988 act, which mandated the privatization of YCF through a concession, for a maximum period of 20 years.

Also, the new private company received a new coal contract with the thermal power station of San Nicolás (by then, run by Agua y Energía Eléctrica, a public energy company, it would be later sold to AES Corporation) that mandated the power station to buy coal from Rio Turbio at a 20% higher mark than the international price.

High levels of Carbon monoxide were registered, fueled by a big number of plastics and rubber objects burning.

[11] After the incident, then-controller Esteban Loncaric resigned and the government designated Daniel Peralta (who would later become governor of the province) in his place.

[18][17] In December 2004, the Ministry of Federal Planning (headed by Julio de Vido) announced the construction of a 35 MW thermal power station, a 40 million dollars investment.

[6][19] In 2006, Julio de Vido announced the construction of a 240 MW thermal power station in Rio Turbio, aimed not only for energy generation, but also for demand creation for the mine's coal.

[5] Also in September 2015, then-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner carried out a symbolic start-up of a turbine at the plant for its inauguration.

The company does not have the legal entity type of a state-owned enterprise, neither an organic law that establishes its internal structure, what would bring certainty and transparence to the operation.

[5][34] With this concern, in November 2015, months before a new government took office, the Argentine Chamber of Deputies approved a bill to create a new state-owned company, called Yacimientos Carboníferos Fiscales Sociedad del Estado (YCFSE), that would control the mine, the rail and port, and the Río Turbio Power Plant.

In February 2016, it ordered an Audit on the Río Turbio thermal power plant to be made by the Sindicatura General de la Nación, halting works in the middletime.

[47] In October 2017, former minister Julio de Vido was detained (after a desafuero process to remove his Deputy immunity privileges) charged with fraudulent administration of Rio Turbio for the amount of 265 million pesos.

[52][53][38] The construction company was on insolvency claims at that time, having abandoned other public works in the country, as Paseo del Bajo for instance.

[55] Juan Carlos Lascurain, former president of the Argentine Industrial Union was jailed in March 2018 for alleged irregularities in the YCRT renovation projects.

[64] In June 2020, a spill of over 2,000 and 3,000 litres of oil over the Primavera river was caused by the freezing and breakage of pipes in the internal power station of the mine.

[65][66] The mine has its own industrial rail line for coal transport to the Punta Loyola port, a 285 kilometres (177 mi) long route.

[67] In the last years, refurbished locomotives and switchers of soviet and Romanian origin were purchased, as well as freight cars built by EMEPA.

[73] Residues from the washing (which are called "sterile") are sent to the treatment plant of the mine, where they precipitate and separate from water through a leveled drain.

Effluent water from the treatment plant is discharged into the San José creek, and solid residue is sent via conveyor belt to a "sterile pile" where it is accumulated.

[73] The sterile pile has been accumulating residues for over 30 years, presenting a serious environmental hazard due to its close location to the San José creek.

[74][73] The coal is then transported via rail to Punta Loyola, a 285 kilometres (177 mi) long route that takes 8 hours, and then sent via ship to Buenos Aires.