On March 28, 2023, the Mexican President submitted an initiative to amend the Mining Law and the National Waters Law which, if approved as proposed, would impact materially the mining industry in Mexico (the “Initiative”).
I. Main amendments, additions, or modifications to the Mining Law
a) Reduction of the duration of mining concessions.
The Initiative would change the duration of mining concessions from 50 years, renewable once for a total maximum of 100 years, to 15 years, renewable once for a total maximum of 30 years. The Initiative remains silent on what would happen if at the end of the second renewal period the mine in operation still has sufficient reserves that can be exploited (which is likely to occur, considering the length of the exploration and construction period). It is worth mentioning that such time restriction would not apply to mining concessions operated by public or state-owned entities (for the extraction of Lithium for instance).
