Dear Clients and Friends,
The mining industry in Mexico is an economic driver par excellence. Currently, this country is the main producer of silver in the world and one of the largest producers of copper and gold. The mining industry contributes 4% of Mexico’s Gross Domestic Product. (El Economista).
Even though mining is of vital importance to the country, the president of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has recently stated that the current administration will stop granting mining concessions. Undoubtedly, such declaration has generated an environment of concern and distrust in the mining sector, since it is essential for them to expand its exploration projects in order to eventually continue developing productive projects.
In this sense, it is important to clarify that currently the Mining Law and its Regulations have not undergone any type of reform, addition and/or modification. Nor has any decree been issued by the Federal Executive that in any way restricts or limits the granting of mining concessions in the national territory. As a consequence, it can be concluded that it is possible to file an application for a mining concession on free land in accordance with the provisions of Article 13 of the Mining Law and Sections 4 and 16 of its Regulations, which after complying with the conditions and requirements in accordance with law, will necessarily trigger the issuance of a new mining concession title as an administrative act. However, it is essential to clarify that, despite the fact that the mining authority has a term to resolve this type of applications, the fact is that in most cases due to the workload itself and/or this type of declarations, the authority fails to resolve them.
At EC Legal Rubio Villegas we already have an action plan to ensure that applications for concessions on free land that are in the process of being granted are not affected, as well as for the initial process of obtaining a concession and receiving a resolution from the mining authority, before they seek to amend the law, or issue a decree that restricts or limits the obtention of new concessions.
Should you have any questions or comments regarding the foregoing, please do not hesitate to call your usual contact in the Firm.
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