La Jornada – Of the 36 lithium projects, only one is in the hands of Mexicans

Only one of the 36 projects officially present in the country to produce lithium is in the hands of a company with Mexican capital and the rest in the hands of companies from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, officially the information revealed.

Lithium has not yet been commercially produced in Mexico, but future studies show that the country has one of the world’s most important reserves and mineral extraction potential, and is the basis for manufacturing electric car batteries.

Evidence of this potential is the huge project implemented by the English company Bacanora Lithium in Sonora, which with an investment of 420 million dollars plans to start production in 2023, which began a few weeks ago with building its factory, according to company information.

Another announced by this newspaper: Canadian Advance Gold has bought 13 properties in San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas from Mexican company Hot Spring Mining. (https://bit.ly/2PY0r1x).

Mexico has resources estimated at 1.7 million tons of lithium, which is 2.8 percent of the global total, placing the country in eighth place among the countries with the largest reserves. Argentina holds roughly 25 percent of the total, according to a Mining Watch Canada report, based on data from Statista.

Of the 36 projects registered in the Comprehensive System of Mining Economy (SINEM), 15 are owned by Organimax, four by Radius Gold and three by Bacanora (the three are from Canada). Three more from Infinite Lithium (Australia), three from Alien Metals (United Kingdom), three from Zenith Minerals (Australia), one from One World Lithium (Canada), one from Rock Tech (Canada), and one from Pan American Lithium (Confederation European), one from Zeox (Canada), and one from Litio Mex (Mexico).

Speculation

Among these, 19 are active: 15 from Organimax, three from Bacanora and one from One World Lithium, which, according to a study by the social organization Mining Watch Canada, speaks to the speculation of several companies in that country, which generate expectations to raise their stock prices.

In addition to the 36 registered private lithium projects, four more: Los Aros and Los Pecos, in Sonora; Alondra, in Jalisco, and Tlaxcuapan, in Puebla, are in the hands of SINEM – which is part of the Ministry of Economy – which is being studied to verify their potential.

In terms of lithium potential, so far all attention is focused on the Northeast, especially the mega-lithium Bakanura project in Sonora, which aims to produce 34 tons of lithium annually; However, states like San Luis and Zacatecas, located in the north-central part of the country, have more than half of the projects registered.

According to SINEM records, of the total registered lithium projects in Mexico, 18 projects are being developed in Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi.

In that region, the three most important are in the hands of the Canadian Organimax (Santa Clara, La Salada, and Caligoy), the reserves of lithium and potassium are estimated at about 120 metric tons.