Mexico has deteriorated its attractiveness to invest in the mining sector, with a downward trend in its investment, exploration and competitiveness indicators, warned Jaime Gutiérrez, president of the Mexican Mining Chamber (Camimex).
Already with a previous decline, investments in mining exploration captured by Mexico in 2021, for 425 million dollars, did not exceed the level before the pandemic, of 536 million dollars in 2019.
According to Camimex data, the same thing happened with total investments in the sector, which totaled 4,246 million dollars in 2021, a reduction of 8.8% compared to 2019.
Why the fall? An explanation can be found in the investment attraction index prepared by the Fraser Institute of Canada, whose positions reached by Mexico were 38th among 84 territories-economies in the world in 2019, 42nd in 2020 and 34th in 2021.
This index is weighted by assigning a percentage of weight to two components: on the one hand, government policies and the regulation of the country, concentrating on fiscal, environmental, labor, infrastructure quality, etc. factors (40%) and, on the other hand, , the geological potential of the country (60 percent).
“Mexico’s attractiveness as an investment destination has deteriorated significantly in the last 11 years, falling 14 places in the index of investment attraction, positioned in 34th place,” said Gutiérrez when participating in a seminar organized by the Association of Mining Engineers, Metallurgists and Geologists of Mexico (AIMMGM), in Hermosillo, Sonora.
A second partial explanation is that the Mexican federal government announced in 2019 the cancellation of new mining concessions, while those that operated until then can continue to carry out exploration, which is now encouraged in a certain way by the high prices of minerals.
Gutiérrez also indicated that investment in mining exploration not carried out due to postponed projects in Mexico was 959.7 million dollars in 2021, marking a growing trend compared to 2019 (610.6 million) and 2020 (880.3 million). “The Semarnat (Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources) has done us a lot of damage. He’s stopped us scouting programs. The moratorium on mining concessions has affected us. This moratorium is manageable in a period of six years, in an administration; but if it goes to 12 or 18 years, it is suicidal”, commented Alfonso Martínez, director of Exploration of Grupo México.
Finally, Gutiérrez said that the Secretary of the Economy, Tatiana Clouthier, proposed a meeting between the President of Camimex, the governors of the five main mining states in the country and her to promote strategies and public policy that promote mining and the objectives social and economic of the government of Mexico. A joint proposal would come out of that meeting to be presented to the Presidency of the Republic.
Mexico ranks among the top 10 positions in world production of 17 minerals, including first in silver, second in fluorite, third in celestite and wollastonite, sixth in zinc, seventh in salt, eighth in copper and ninth in gold.
Meanwhile, several initiatives have been presented in the Mexican Congress to modify the Mining Law.