Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has issued orders for the nationalization of his country’s lithium deposits to be expedited, setting the stage for foreign countries to be excluded from lithium mining in the nation.
Last April, President Obrador ordered the transfer of the nation’s lithium reserves to Mexico’s energy ministry, when he signed a document ordering it at an event in Bacadehuachi in the state of Sonora. The document also designated 2,500 square kilometers in the region a national lithium mining zone.
The region, which sits on the border with the United States, houses the nation’s largest lithium deposits. The Mexican president chose the region specifically for that reason as the site where he would launch his ambitious Plan Sonora. The plan contained a strategy for exploiting the nation’s lithium resources, which are vital in the manufacture of smartphones, electric vehicle batteries, and other rechargeable electronics today.
Lithium mining and extraction was nationalized with the approval of a bill by Mexican authorities last April, which transferred exclusive rights to the mineral to a state-run company which was still to be created. President Obrador had promised at the time he would review all contracts with foreign companies which were exploring projects to develop potential lithium deposits in the nation. In April, the government founded the state-run company Litio para Mexico, or Lithium for Mexico, which would receive the rights to the mineral.
This new decree issues orders to Mexico’s energy ministry “to take the actions necessary to carry out” the nationalization of the deposits.
Obrador said, “[Let’s make] the nation be the owner of this strategic mineral. What we are doing now… is to nationalize lithium so that it cannot be exploited by foreigners from Russia, China or the US.”
Because the Mexican government was inexperienced in mining lithium or commercially exploiting deposits, a large number of foreign corporations had taken part on projects exploring the commercial development of Mexico’s lithium resources.
Mexico’s largest lithium project at a clay deposit in Sonora was being developed by Chinese mining company Ganfeng, which held the rights to roughly 75% of the lithium to be extracted at Sonora Lithium.
Pablo Taddei, the chief executive of the state-run company for lithium production said in an interview with Reuters, that while Mexico was open to partnerships to develop its lithium resources, the federal government intended to hold the majority stake in any future joint projects.
