A gang member seeks to steal a car, but since he is unable to do so given the vehicle’s modern security systems, he decides to kick it and break its windshield as a sign of disappointment, anger and revenge. He tries to harm as a perverse reflection of resentment and social rancor. In Mexico, President López tried to destroy the complex and effective architecture of the electricity sector designed in the 2013 reform. However, his constitutional counter-reform initiative was frustrated thanks to a united and firm opposition. It was his first big defeat, and a turning point. As a reaction and shock, it decided to modify the Mining Law in an untimely manner to create a government monopoly (contrary to Article 28 of the Constitution) declaring lithium a “public utility”, prohibiting the granting of concessions or other types of licenses and contracts, and putting its entire value chain is under government control. He did it in the form of an albazo, with less than 24 hours notice to the Chamber of Deputies, for his urgent vote with a waiver of paperwork, without analysis or work in commissions, taking advantage of his simple majority. His objective is to sabotage Mexico and close the doors to lithium mining, through an ostensible act of contempt for the rules and forms of representative democracy and the division of powers, and with an absolute lack of respect for the Congress. Morena and his satellites voted for something they hadn’t even read, much less understood its implications. They turned Congress, once again, into a simple office of President López’s parties.
It is clear that it is a gangbang, because the Mining Law was not modified in the most critical and relevant issues, such as those related to public and indigenous consultations, agreements between owners and mining companies, and environmental regulation and planning. And of course, it is an unconstitutional act. Article 27 of our Magna Carta establishes in its Fourth Paragraph the direct control of the Nation over all the minerals, metals and metalloids of the subsoil – among which is lithium; while the Sixth Paragraph of the same Article 27 establishes that its exploitation by individuals will be carried out through concessions granted by the federal executive. The changes that President López has introduced to the Mining Law to prohibit concessions cannot be above the Constitution. They are also in violation of the T-MEC and other trade agreements. They will be challenged through amparos, unconstitutionality actions, constitutional controversies, lawsuits, and lawsuits.
Lithium deposits in Mexico are not particularly abundant (we are among the top 10 or 20 countries in the world with the largest reserves), and correspond not to surface brine, as exists in Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, which are easier to exploit, but in the form of Pegmatites or rocks in deep mantles where lithium is combined with a wide range of minerals. They are found mainly in Sonora, Chihuahua, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí and Jalisco. Such Pegmatites have high exploration risks, and require technologically very complex and costly processes of access to underground deposits, concentration, leaching and extraction, purification and precipitation to obtain lithium carbonate, which is the usable form of this metal in different applications.
President López intends to create a government monopoly company that is in charge of the exploration and exploitation of lithium. He has no idea what this entails. The Mexican government lacks the financial and human resources, as well as the technology, and the capacity to assume the enormous exploration and commercial risks involved. Developing all this will take decades, and it will be a great failure, as has happened in Bolivia, unlike Chile, Australia and Argentina, where private concession companies exploit lithium successfully and transfer substantial income to the State in the form of royalties. The budgets for this do not exist, and other essential items of public spending would have to be sacrificed. It will be a useless white elephant that will mean a gigantic patrimonial damage to the Nation. The worst thing is that lithium is not the last word as an electrolyte in batteries, and in a few years there will be substitutes that improve its performance (sodium, solid-state batteries). We will have lost money and time, since the rent offered today by lithium will be – most likely – transitory.
It is another blow to the development of the country and the mining states and municipalities, already deeply affected by the looting and disappearance of the Mining Fund, with which important infrastructure, equipment and environmental improvement works were financed. President López is eager for absolute concentration of power and narcissistic recognition. He will use lithium as a nationalist narrative alibi to maintain control of the public conversation, continue to dazzle his congregation, and distract attention from the resounding failure of his government.
@g_quadri
Civil Engineer and Economist
Serious Green
Mexican politician, liberal environmentalist and researcher, he has served as a public official and activist in the private sector. He was the candidate of the Nueva Alianza party for President of Mexico in the 2012 elections.