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State to take control of Mexico's lithium mining

President Lopez Obrador says private companies' ‘looting’ of the ‘strategic mineral’ is over

MEXICAN President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador plans to declare lithium a “strategic mineral” and take state control of mining and processing it.

The mineral, which is used in producing smartphones, computers and electric vehicles, is an increasingly important resource and access to it has sparked political crises. Bolivian President Luis Arce has stated that “the economic objective” of the 2019 US and British-backed coup against Evo Morales “was to control the lithium.”

Mr Lopez Obrador said on Wednesday that a new state company would be created to mine and process lithium, and existing permits for private firms to mine it would be cancelled.

Mexico’s only private lithium mine, Bacanora Lithium, is owned by Chinese firm Ganfeng International, but the Mexican leader said they would not be allowed to start operations. “What they want to do is to continue looting and that is over,” he declared. “Lithium is going to be mined by the government.”

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