Organizations warn of possible environmental setbacks in mining regulation.
Sonora, Chihuahua, and Durango concentrate most of the mining projects linked to the energy transition, according to official data analyzed by civil organizations. “Sonora, which is one of the mining states par excellence, is also going to continue with this type of project,” Beatriz Olivera, director of Engenera and member of the Cambiémosla Ya collective, explained in an interview.
This follows the announcement by Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, who revealed that Mexico and the United States will work on a “new paradigm for preferential trade in critical minerals” to “ensure the mutual resilience of supply chains.”
Sonora is the epicenter with 203 mining projects. “There is silver, zinc, copper, lithium, graphite, and also rare earths,” the activist explained. The second place is occupied by Chihuahua with 153 projects (silver, iron, copper), and in third, Durango with 112 initiatives registered mainly for the extraction of silver, lead, zinc, and copper.
“These states are going to continue with this extractive policy, because Mexico is a producer of both copper and silver; it is a leader, especially of silver.” Although the federal government insists that it will be done “within the framework of our sovereignty,” this could accelerate extraction and make environmental standards more flexible. It was announced that it would imply regulatory changes.”
So-called strategic or critical minerals, such as lithium, copper, nickel, cobalt, manganese, silicon, graphite, and rare earths, are essential and irreplaceable components for the manufacture of electric vehicle batteries, chips, weapons, and other technologies.
The Canadian-owned company Discovery Metals Corp is exploring the only rare earth project in the country, located in Coahuila. “In Oaxaca, there is also the issue with rare earths,” and in Sonora, these elements have also been identified.
“We achieved substantive changes to the Mining Law in 2023, but now thinking about a more extractivist policy implies the risk of setbacks,” Olivera warned. The president, Claudia Sheinbaum, pointed out that there is no agreement signed with the United States, “that they are still in talks,” and that there will be no changes in the Mining Law, but “it seems that the president is saying one thing and is operating in the opposite direction.”
Together, Sonora, Chihuahua, Durango, Sinaloa and Zacatecas account for 63% of the total energy transition projects in the country; others with important portfolios are Jalisco, Oaxaca, and San Luis Potosí; “It does not mean that something is being extracted from all of them, in some cases yes, in others no” since most of them are in exploration or postponement.
The lithium earring
Lithium, nationalized in 2023, becomes relevant in this context: “Lithium in Sonora has been found above all in clay,” a type of deposit that requires open-pit mining and whose processing is more complex than that of brines, he contextualized.
The Mexican Geological Service (SGM) pointed out that “reserves should not be overestimated” because the initial estimates were based on the total volume of clay, not on the actual concentration of the extractable mineral.
“The company Lithium for Mexico (LitioMx) is still formed, it also continues with plans to be able to produce batteries and also lithium carbonate in the future” to comply with state production plans and external demand, and “we do not want social or environmental standards to be relaxed to supply markets, because then we would be talking about nationalist extractivism.”
“That the mining law, if it is intended to be modified, be in a progressive and non-regressive way,” such as “the whole issue of the prohibition of open-pit mining, finally, that initiative has already been sent to the freezer and has no progress.”
“The regulation should have come out in the same year 2023 because there were only 180 working days once the law was published”, a deadline that was not met, on the other hand, “the Ministry of Economy has joined with the industry to work on this regulation, which we find regrettable because it seems that then the mining industry is working on its own rules”, said the specialist.
“We have to be very attentive to what is discussed, to what is signed,” because an agreement of this nature “is going to have impacts on the territories.”
Source: El Economista
