They remove an attractive mining law

Last year it ranked sixth in attracting mining investment in Latin America, while in 2018 it ranked 3rd.

Ecuador, Colombia, Chile and the Argentine provinces of Salta and San Juan exceeded Countryrevealed the Fraser Institute’s Mining Investment Attractiveness Index.

Of the 84 jurisdictions assessed by Fraser, the Country It ranked 34th in mining attraction, five places down from 2018, where it ranked 29th out of 83.

The perception of public mining policies has also deteriorated Country occupying the 54th place out of 84. In 2018, he was in the 48th place.

The federal government’s moratorium on mining concessions and the exclusion or limitation of private participation in the exploration and production of minerals like lithium have created uncertainty in the sector, according to anonymous testimony collected in the Canadian study.

With the reform of the mining law that has been approved by the deputies and is about to be discussed in the Senate, the attraction for mining investments in Mexico could collapse, said Armando Alatorre, president of the College of Engineers of minesmetallurgists and geologists from Mexico.

The reform approved in the Lower House reserves lithium for the exclusive use of the State

“It is impossible that three provinces in Argentina have more potential than all of Mexico in terms of mining,” Alatorre said.

Because these are companies that require a lot of resources, with long periods of maturation and high levels of risk, the Government could not have the investment capacity necessary to carry out the mining project and should neglect d other programs and projects.

Régulo Salinas, chairman of the energy commission of the Business Coordinating Council, assured that the exploitation of lithium is expensive and that Mexico is not considered a power in this ore.

“Mexico is not a power in lithium and it is difficult for it to be, the lithium deposits they have are not of very good quality and their exploitation would be expensive,” he said.

For this reason, he wondered whether executive reform in the mines would be successful.

According to Mexico’s Chamber of Mines, the reform jeopardizes one of the five main sources of state revenue.

Contributions to the sector’s treasury over the past six years accumulate more than 225 billion pesos, an amount equivalent to 3.3 times Sonora’s expenditure budget and 6.7 times Zacatecas’s in 2022.