The president had already advanced in one of his morning conferences that his administration was looking for reach a conciliatory agreement with a company that has a permit to exploit the mineral in the north of the country. The negotiation would be aimed at avoiding going to court.
So far, the government has not publicly disclosed the name of the company with which it is conducting negotiations.
The sources did not specify at what point in the process the negotiation is, but said that it is being led by the Ministry of Economy and that the state company LitioMX would be in charge of the technical contribution in the negotiations. The talks began almost at the same time that the president proposed the change to the Mining Law, last April, which removes the possibility of giving more concessions to private companies in places where there could be mineral reserves.
The sources ruled out that as part of the negotiations seek to remove the concession from the company. “Nothing is going to be taken away, the law is not retroactive and it is an indication that has been given repeatedly by the president,” said one of the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. They also did not say if this same process was being carried out with other mining companies.
The Ministry of Economy and Ganfeng Lithium were consulted but did not immediately offer comment. A spokesman for the Chinese company told a few weeks ago Expansion that its concession was being reviewed and that for now the company did not have the necessary permits to start with the construction of infrastructure and therefore with the exploitation of the mineral.
Ganfeng already owns a pilot plant to process lithium carbonate in Hermosillo.
The company has delayed the start of lithium extraction from the deposit. Your financial statements They pointed out that the first production of the mineral would be from 2019 and the date has been constantly covered. The company’s latest estimate, sources close to the process have said, is that the first production can be seen until the end of next year, once the current six-year term has ended.
President López Obrador will visit the area where the deposit is located next week, he said last month. In one of his conferences, he commented that he was seeking to give some concessions in the north of the country to a national company, which could be the recently created state-owned LitioMX.