MEXICO.- The nationalization of lithium celebrated one year of becoming a reality in Mexico with the creation of the company LitioMx. The “white gold” that is committed to taking an environmental turn against the destruction of the planet has found in Mexico a policy that leaves the search, extraction, exploitation and various obstacles to the State.
The first to resent are the thousand inhabitants of a small town immersed in the desert lands of Sonora: Bacadéhuachi. The residents have seen some investments escape that promised economic benefit in the traditionally forage town that won the lottery when it was discovered that more than cattle could be exploited on its parts.
This is how they saw the interest of international companies such as Tesla, which seeks to buy mineral for its ecological car batteries, and also from Mexican companies, such as De Luna Lithium Battery.
However, the intention has remained there: in the search for a value that does not arrive.
Of Moon Lithium recently changed the investment of 80 million dollars that he had planned to establish a plant in Sonora to the State of Mexico because got tired of waiting for the extraction of the mineral and preferred to buy lithium from China while LitioMx progresses.
In general, LitioMx has not broken hope yet, but hopes of responding with the immediacy that is sought with clean energy.
And if intelligence is measured by the amount of uncertainty that is capable of resisting, as the Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant said, the villagers of Bacadeáchi, the Sonorans, the Mexicans and the Americans who bet on lithium will have a challenge to demonstrate their value because the company parastatal has not just emerged, analysts agree.
China currently leads the world production of lithium batteries, with 79% of production, followed by Germany with 11%.
THE CURRENT STATE
On August 22, 2022, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador created the company Lithium for Mexico (LitioMx)an instance that would be exclusively in charge of the use of the mineral in national territory as well as the administration and control of the related economic value chains, among other uses, for the clean automotive industry.
Half a year later (on February 18), the president signed the “Decree by which, for reasons of public utility, the so-called “Li-MX 1” lithium mining reserve area in Sonora, which had been concessioned to companies, is declared foreigners during the six-year term of Enrique Peña (2012-2018).
This lithium mine reserve consists of an area of almost 235 thousand hectares located in the municipalities of Arivechi, Bacadéhuachi, Huásabas, Divisaderos, Granados, Sahuaripa and Nácori Chico in Sonora.
Thus began an Era that should continue with the search for lithium and the end of the intervention of foreigners, but neither one thing nor the other has followed a clear path, despite the fact that LitioMx is owned by Mexicans and should report in detail the steps to follow, but it has been opaque.
In accordance with the General Criteria of Economic Policy 2023 of the Federation Budget, the exploitation of lithium should promote parallel industries as well as an economic spill compared to a third of the Gross Domestic Product, but in the same document it was recorded that the money for this he was a soldier.
“The budget is uncertain and is subject to discretionary decisions by the Ministry of Energy, without a specific item being assigned to it,” said José Roldán, a consultant at the Natural Resource Governance Institute.
LITTLE BY LITTLE
Regarding LitioMx there are now at least four important questions: will it indemnify the 24 foreign companies that had previously invested in the matter and whose projects were suspended?; Will it find a balance with the fossil fuel policies that this administration has zealously promoted? Will it find more deposits? Will it regulate the environmental impact?
Although the federal government has not ruled on the slowness of operations, some statements by officials in Sonora suggest that the Mexican State sees everything in the long term.
Margarita Vélez, local Secretary of Economy, recently told the business magazine Expansión that she does not intend to precipitate any investment at the cost of skipping stages for the authorization of private companies that want to participate in the mineral exploitation support process.
“Everything must be fully complied with, starting with the presentation of the projects themselves, the review, the paperwork for permits that are requested at the three levels of government, municipal, state and federal, he said.
“Its establishment and operation (of LitioMx) must be quick and orderly, but without undermining the legal requirements, particularly those that refer to environmental impact issues.”
To get a ton of lithium carbonate, about two million liters of water are needed, although it can increase up to five million in certain cases, depending on the degree of concentration and the technique used, according to experts in the field.
“At a technical level, lithium extraction can be done in the open air, but also from huge open-air pools in the middle of the desert (as in Sonora), where the high temperatures of the sun evaporate millions of liters of water previously pumped abroad from the subsoil”, explained the environmentalist Marina Otero.
For now, in Bacadéhuachi, the town that has been promoted as “flooded with lithium”, and its surroundings will be lit with solar energy. The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) invested around 20 million dollars for the upcoming mining operations while investigations continue in search of new deposits.
Energy analysts agree that there is “an ecstasy” due to the exploitation of lithium by the Mexican State when it is still unknown how much mineral there is and of what quality. In general, it is estimated that Mexico represents 2% of the world’s potential resources.
“To find out how much we actually have, we would first have to invest in checking what these resources are, what their quality is,” said Casiopea Ramírez, from Fresh Energy Consulting.
The other challenges for LitioMx is the administrative structure because most managers lack technical knowledge and their appointments are more related to political issues.
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