Mining in Mexico represented 2.4% of the nation's gross domestic product in 2023 and employed 350,000 people in 2020. Mexico is the world's largest producer of silver and a globally significant producer of gold, copper and zinc. In 2020, Mexico produced the world's 12th largest volume of minerals by value.
Since 2018, Mexico's left-wing president has been taking a firmer stance towards mining companies and reforming mining regulations. President López Obrador was critical of (mostly foreign owned) mining companies' track record of environmental harm and tax avoidance[ citation needed ].
In 2023, mining in Mexico represented 2.4% of the nation's gross domestic product, and 8.2% of Mexico's industrial GDP. The mining sector employed 350,000 people in 2020, and generated US$1.5 billion in direct government tax revenue, and an additional US$1.84 billion of government revenue from exports of mined natural resources. [1]
Mexico is the world's largest producer of silver [2] and a globally significant producer of gold, copper and zinc. [1]
In 2020, Mexico produced the world's 12th largest volume of minerals, valued at US$17.8 billion. [3]
Mapping and consultations about mining in Mexico are led the by the Mexican Geological Survey government agency. [4]
In January 2013, 500 activists met in Capulálpam de Méndez, Oaxaca at the ¡Sí a la vida! ¡No a la minera! (English Yes to life! No to mining!) event. The event was undertaken to coordinate anti-mining efforts, perceived by the activists as harmful to their lives. [5]
Mexico's left-wing [2] president Andrés Manuel López Obrador halted issuing any new mining licences, and did not consider mining an essential business permitted to operate during the COVID-19 pandemic. [1] López Obrador has been critical of corporate tax avoidance and environmental damage, and has both reformed mining regulations and increased state control of mining operations. The president nationalised the nation's lithium reserves in 2022. [2]
In 2023, the Canadian government noted the Mexican's government rapid action to improve the conditions of Mexican miners, after the Mexican government changed 20,000 collective bargaining agreements it perceived to be favouring mine owners at the expense of workers. [6]
74% of mining concessions in Mexico are owned by Canadian companies. [7] Significant and notable mining companies include Grupo Mexico, Newmont, Southern Silver Exploration, [1] Ganfeng Lithium, Fortuna Silver Mines, Blackfire Exploration, [2] Alamos Gold, [8] Aurcana Corporation, [9] Hochschild Mining, [10] and Excellon Resources. [11]
Alamos Gold is a Canadian mining company that own the Mulatos gold mine and the El Chanate defunct gold mines both Sonora. [12] [8]
Aurcana Corporation operated the La Negra mine, a silver, copper, zinc and lead mine in Querétaro. [9]
Blackfire Exploration is a Canadian firm that owns the La Revancha baryte mine in Chicomuselo, in Chiapas. [13] [14] The mine opened in 2007 [15] with the local community divided between support and opposition. [14] [15] The mine was closed by authorities in 2009 after the assassination of anti-moining activist Mariano Abarca. [15] [16] Abarca had previously been assaulted by Blackfire Exploration staff. [17] In 2011, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided Blackfire Exploration's offices while investigating the payment of a bribe to a Chiapas state mayor. Three staff were arrested during the raid. [18] [19]
Canadian owner of La Platosa mine [20] and La Negra silver mine. [21]
Fortuna Silver Mines is a Canadian mining company that has operated in southern Mexico since 2011. [2]
Ganfeng Lithium is a Chinese company that bought the a lithium mine in Sonora in 2021, before the nation nationalised its lithium reserves. [2]
Grupo Mexico owns nine mines that produce copper, lead, zinc and silver. [1]
Hochschild Mining opened the Moris open-pit gold and silver mine in Chihuahua in 2007. [10]
Newmont is an American [22] mining company that operates the nation's largest gold mine, the Peñasquito mine, also notable for being the nation's second largest silver mine and a significant source of zinc and lead. [1]
Southern Silver Exploration own the Cerro Las Minitas prospect in Durango expected to produce significant quantities of silver, lead, zinc, copper and gold. The company owns the Velardeña mine in Durango and San Martin mine in Querétaro City, both producing of gold, silver, zinc and lead. [1]
Mining is the extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agricultural processes, or feasibly created artificially in a laboratory or factory. Ores recovered by mining include metals, coal, oil shale, gemstones, limestone, chalk, dimension stone, rock salt, potash, gravel, and clay. The ore must be a rock or mineral that contains valuable constituent, can be extracted or mined and sold for profit. Mining in a wider sense includes extraction of any non-renewable resource such as petroleum, natural gas, or even water.
Agnico Eagle Mines Limited is a Canadian-based gold producer with operations in Canada, Finland, Australia and Mexico and exploration and development activities extending to the United States. Agnico Eagle has full exposure to higher gold prices consistent with its policy of no-forward gold sales. As of 2017, it has paid a cash dividend every year since 1983.
Chicomuselo is a municipality in the Mexican state of Chiapas, and also the name of the municipality's largest settlement and the seat of the municipal government. The municipality has an area of 1,043 km².
Romania ranks tenth in the world in terms of the diversity of minerals produced in the country. Around 60 different minerals are currently produced in Romania. The richest mineral deposits in the country are halite.
Zijin Mining Group Co., Limited is a multi-national mining company headquartered in Mainland China.
Hochschild Mining plc is a leading British-based silver and gold mining business operating in North, Central, and South America. It is headquartered in Lima, Peru, with a corporate office in London, is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. The main shareholder is the Peruvian businessman Eduardo Hochschild.
Mining is the biggest contributor to Namibia's economy in terms of revenue. It accounts for 25% of the country's income. Its contribution to the gross domestic product is also very important and makes it one of the largest economic sectors of the country. Namibia produces diamonds, uranium, copper, magnesium, zinc, silver, gold, lead, semi-precious stones and industrial minerals. The majority of revenue comes from diamond mining. In 2014, Namibia was the fourth-largest exporter of non-fuel minerals in Africa.
Resources are classified as either biotic or abiotic on the basis of their origin. India contains a multitude of both types of resource and its economy, especially in rural areas, is heavily dependent on their consumption or export. Due to overconsumption, they are rapidly being depleted.
The mining sector in Chile is one of the pillars of Chilean economy and copper exports alone stands for more than one third of government income. Most mining in Chile is concentrated to the Norte Grande region spanning most of the Atacama Desert. Mining products of Chile includes copper, gold, silver, molybdenum, iron and coal. Chile was, in 2019, the world's largest producer of copper, iodine and rhenium, the second largest producer of lithium and molybdenum, the sixth largest producer of silver, the seventh largest producer of salt, the eighth largest producer of potash, the thirteenth producer of sulfur and the thirteenth producer of iron ore in the world. In the production of gold, between 2006 and 2017, the country produced annual quantities ranging from 35.9 tons in 2017 to 51.3 tons in 2013.
Mining in Bolivia has been a dominant feature of the Bolivian economy as well as Bolivian politics since 1557. Colonial era silver mining in Bolivia, particularly in Potosí, played a critical role in the Spanish Empire and the global economy. Tin mining supplanted silver by the twentieth century and the central element of Bolivian mining, and wealthy tin barons played an important role in national politics until they were marginalized by the industry's nationalization into the Bolivian Mining Corporation that followed the 1952 revolution. Bolivian miners played a critical part to the country's organized labor movement from the 1940s to the 1980s.
Mining in Argentina includes primary aluminum, lead, copper, zinc, silver, and gold. In 2019, Argentina was the 4th largest world producer of lithium, the 9th largest world producer of silver, the 17th largest world producer of gold and the 7th largest world producer of boron.
Mariano Abarca Roblero (1958–2009) was a community activist known for leading opposition against mining by Blackfire Exploration in his community of Chicomuselo in the state of Chiapas in Southern Mexico.
Blackfire Exploration Ltd. is an exploration and mining company based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The company holds mineral rights in British Columbia, Canada, and Chiapas, Mexico. Blackfire has Canadian and Mexican mineral properties at various stages of development and is currently focused on projects in both Canada and Chiapas, Mexico:
Royal Gold is one of the world's leading precious metals streaming and royalty companies engaged in the acquisition and management of precious metal streams, royalties and similar production-based interests. Royal Gold owns a large portfolio of producing, development, evaluation and exploration stage streams and royalties on properties located in some of the world's most prolific gold regions and operated by some of the most well-known companies in the mining industry.
American Metal Company was an American nonferrous metal trading and production company.
La Revancha mine, full name Ampliación La Revancha and often known as the Chicomuselo baryte mine is a baryte mine, located in Chicomuselo, in Chiapas, Mexico.
Mexican Network of People Affected by Mining is a Mexican group that campaigns for political change and ecological conservation and against open-pit mining.
Excellon Resources is a Canadian mining company that operates the La Platosa mine and the La Negra mine silver mines in Mexico.
La Platosa mine is a silver mine located at Bermejillo in the Mapimí Municipality of Durango state, Mexico owned by the Canadian company Excellon Resources.