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The Mexican State will be the only one authorized to exploit lithium in the country. An essential mineral for the manufacture of batteries, electronic devices and even airplanes. The law was approved in record time after two days of being sent by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
No private licenses. The Chamber of Senators of Mexico approved, in general, the reform to the Mining Law, which allows the nationalization of lithium, approved yesterday by the Chamber of Deputies, after being sent by President López Obrador.
“With 87 votes in favor, 20 against and 16 abstentions, it is approved in general and the non-reserved articles of the opinion that reforms various provisions of the Mining Law regarding the exploration and exploitation of lithium”, assured Olga Sánchez Cordero, the Senate president.
As expected, the parliamentary group of the National Regeneration Movement party, Morena, of López Obrador, voted en bloc and together with the votes of the senators of the Citizen Movement, Social Encounter Party, the Green Ecologist of Mexico and Labor, they got 87 votes in favour.
While senators from the National Action Party and the so-called plural group, and from the Institutional Revolutionary and Democratic Revolution parties, were against it, essentially criticizing the haste with which the initiative was approved and the state’s capacity to manage mineral resources .
“With the approval of the reforms to the Mining Law, the nationalization of lithium is not intended, since it is already enshrined in article 27 of the Mexican Constitution; however, it is a question of specifying the full and exclusive domain of the State over this important mineral,” said Senator Geovanna Bañuelos of the PT.
Private industry will not be able to participate in the lithium market
The legislation prohibits private participation in the lithium market, a measure welcomed by President López Obrador, who announced a review of all contracts in the lithium sector, a prelude to potential clashes with investors.
The law declares the exploration, exploitation and use of lithium to be of public utility, in addition to preventing concessions and private contracts for the exploitation of the mineral, which will be the sole responsibility of the State through a new decentralized body.
And although Mexico does not yet have any commercial lithium production, there are projects in the exploratory phase between Jalisco and Guanajuato, as well as in Nogales, Sonora and Puebla. López Obrador promised that he will develop technology to exploit lithium.
For critics of the law, Mexico already controls lithium production under the Constitution and they say the reform could scare away investment in the metal. The bill also includes a clause that would allow the state to take charge of “other minerals declared strategic” by Mexico.
The Mexican president is testing the limits of the law after his constitutional reform to increase state control of the energy market was defeated in Congress last Sunday.
Mexico is in the 10th place of the 23 countries with lithium reserves, with the largest deposit in the world in Sonora, in the northwest of the country and is managed by Bacanora Lithium, which is controlled by the Chinese company Ganfeng Lithium, according to data. officers.
With EFE and Reuters
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