The Fourth District Court in Administrative Matters of Mexico City granted this Thursday a provisional suspension so that it does not apply to the Canadian company First Majestic Silver the reform to the Mining Law that was approved in Congress last April, via fast track, and which provides for the automatic rejection of applications for concessions in this sector.
The new provisions of the Mining Law, and the laws of National Waters, of Ecological Balance, and for the Prevention and Integral Management of Waste, have been in force since May 9. All these norms were modified, without any discussion, by the majority of Morena in the Legislative Power, in addition to the fact that in the Senate the approval was carried out without the presence of the opposition.
It is “feasible to grant the provisional suspension requested, so that the authorities responsible in the scope of their functions, carry out the corresponding actions so that the Third Paragraph of the Fifth transitory Article of the Decree does not apply to the complainant” with which the Mining Law was changed, specifies the order issued by the judge Ulises Rivera Gonzalezwhose copy owns HIGH LEVEL.
In that numeral of the reform decree, which was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on May 8, it is established that “the applications in process for (a) new exploration and exploitation concession will be discarded without further adoby virtue of the provisions” in the changes approved by the Legislative Power.
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The Canadian company First Majestic Plata considered in its amparo claim that this measure violates articles 1, 5, 13, 14, 16, 25, 27, 28, 49, 89, 133 and 134 of the Constitution, therefore requested that “any act tending to the execution or fulfillment” of the provisions of the third paragraph of the fifth transitory article of the decree be suspended.
Specifically, the firm asked the Court for the suspension so that “all the effects and consequences derived” from the reform are paralyzed, and specifically “so that the applications for mining concessions” that it has requested are not considered discarded without further ado. the consortium to the federal government.
By agreeing -preliminarily- with First Majestic Plata, Judge Ulises Rivera González explained that the provisional suspension preserves the matter of the amparo trial, preventing the execution of the reform, because if it were to materialize, it would be very difficult or perhaps impossible. that things return “to the state in which they were before its entry into force”, in the event that the company obtains a favorable sentence.
In addition to the companies in the sector that can sue under the reform, the opposition legislators have already announced that they will challenge before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation all the legislative changes approved in fast track by Morena last April.
The reform of the Mining Law, and the laws of National Waters, Ecological Balance, and the Prevention and Integral Management of Waste, in addition to establishing the rejection of applications for concessions, reduce the term of the concessions from 50 to 30 years. themselves, while it profoundly modifies the procedures so that companies can operate in this sector.
First Majestic Plata, a subsidiary in Mexico of the Canadian First Majestic Silver Corp., owns 100% of three mines in our country. The first and second, which produce silver and gold, are called San Dimas and Santa Elena, and the third is the La Encantada silver mine.
San Dimas, which has an area of 71,868 hectares, is located 130 kilometers northwest of Durango. In turn, the Santa Elena mine, located in the state of Sonora, has 102,244 hectares, while La Encantada is in the north of Coahuila, and has an area of 1.34 hectares.
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surya palaces Journalist and lawyer, specialist in legal analysis and human rights. She has been a reporter, radio host and editor.