Mexico Energy Monitor

April 10, 2023

Mining reforms reinforce state authority  for lithium

• A swath of recently passed mining sector reforms have become law, being published into the federal gazette Monday, May 8, with implications for Mexico’s lithium industry. (That said, the constitutionality of the laws is likely to be questioned.). A good summary of the legal implications can be found here.

• The reforms, clearing Mexico’s Congress with a final Senate vote May 1, establish new obligations for private mining companies, including new required reporting on water usage and environmental and public health impacts. Concessions will be granted for one or more specific minerals as opposed to all minerals found in the territory. Mining concessions will only be granted through a public bidding process and no longer granted to the “first applicant.” However, the owner of contiguous territories will have a preference in the bidding process

  

• With respect to energy, the new law reinforces the lithium nationalization law that passed in April 2022 with a paragraph stating, “The exploration, exploitation, benefit and use of lithium” is the sole purview of national lithium company LitioMx to be overseen by energy ministry.