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The reform works by outright exclusion rather than by tax or royalty: new Article 5 Bis of the Ley Minera bars the state from ever issuing a private concession, license, contract, permit or authorization over lithium — the mechanism a foreign or domestic mining company would otherwise use to develop a deposit. Article 10 further carves lithium out of the general concession regime available to Mexican nationals and companies for other minerals. The August 2022 decree then stands up LitioMx as the sole vehicle through which the state can itself develop lithium, with the Energy Secretariat transferring personnel and budget to get it operating and the Mexican Geological Service providing non-voting technical support on deposit location and geological data.
Severity 5 (maximum) on a quantitative basis: this is a blanket, permanent bar on private-sector lithium concessions — not a tariff or quota but a 100% exclusion of private capital and foreign investment from the entire upstream lithium value chain nationwide, with existing pre-reform concessions (a handful of small exploration-stage projects, since Mexico had no producing lithium mine at the time) left to litigate their status separately. No magnitude: block applies — the action is a concession bar, not a tariff/quota/coverage figure — but the 100% exclusion scope is the quantitative anchor for severity.
lithium deposit at the time) was the main casualty; its concessions were later cancelled by INEGI/Secretaría de Economía in 2023.
reform reserved the resource to the state well before the state had built operational capacity to develop it.
Inconstitucionalidad 78/2022), closing off the main legal challenge route.
disclosed as of this filing.