The Ministry of Economy identified 159 mining companies with foreign capital operating in 26 Mexican states (mostly juniors and exploration) in 2021.

Those companies operate 1,209 projects, of which 822 were on hold and nine operations were reported to be closed at the end of last year.

As part of the latest regulatory changes in the country, the Mining Law was amended on April 20, 2022 to designate Mexico‘s lithium reserves as part of its national patrimony.

Under the Mining Law, the executive branch is responsible for designating a decentralized public agency to carry out all exploration and use of the lithium reserves.

Mexico’s mining GDP was Ps. 865.2 billion in 2021, a growth of 1.6% year-on-year, in real terms (based on GDP calculated in constant pesos with purchasing power as of December 31, 2013).

As for the Mexican transaction market, Seale & Associates announced 149 deals, representing a 22.1% increase in volume compared to 2020.

The industrial sector led M&A activity in 2021 with 25 announced transactions, representing 16.7% of total transactions in the period.

In particular, the mining industry ranked second, with 23 deals, and a 15.4 percent share.

Mining companies

For their part, mining-metallurgical exports amounted to US$23.579 billion in 2021, a figure that represented an increase of 28.1% over the previous year.

The significant increase in exports allowed, despite the increase also reported in imports, an increase in the positive balance of the mining-metallurgical trade balance of 29.6%, reaching a value of 11,904 million dollars.

The positive results in foreign trade of minerals consolidated the mining-metallurgical industry as the fifth largest source of foreign exchange, surpassing tourism and the agricultural sector, and only behind the automotive industry, the electrical and electronic equipment and machinery industry, remittances and oil exports.

The mining sector presented an increase in its contribution to the National GDP, from 2.3% in 2020 to 2.5% in 2021, and the Industrial GDP increased from 8.3% to 8.6% in the period under study, according to data from the Mining Chamber of Mexico (Camimex).

Gold remained the main product of the national mining-metallurgical industry in 2021, with a 28.4% share in the total value of production, followed by copper with 27.7% and silver with 20.4 percent.