Mexican mining investments predicted to fall to US$3.8bn in 2025

Investments in the Mexican mining sector will fall over 20% next year to around US$3.8bn, according to Pedro Rivero, president of local mining chamber Camimex.

“We estimate that this year we will close with US$5bn in investment, which unfortunately has been declining. For 2025 we estimate US$3.8bn,” Rivero said during the presentation of the chamber’s 2024 sustainability report on Tuesday.

The new Camimex leader said that after receiving more than US$600mn in mining exploration investment last year – including non-members of the chamber – the amount would be reduced to about US$500mn this year and US$400mn in 2025.

The fall in investment is mainly due to the policy of freezing concessions and the slowdown in exploration following the mining reform of May 2023 under the previous Andrés Manuel López Obrador administration. The mining reform still lacks secondary legislation.

The reform grants Mexico’s geological service exclusive rights to exploration, complicating the participation of private sectors companies.

"As we have had some restrictions on mining exploration, which is the beginning of our chain, this means there are fewer investments downstream," Rivero said.

In July the chamber projected investment for 2024 in the sector at US$5.13bn. The investment forecast for next year would be the lowest since 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sustainable industry

Camimex highlighted in its sustainability report that last year its members invested almost 7bn pesos (about US$350mn) in environmental protection, operate 100 water treatment plants, and nearly 70% of the water used in mining processes came from recirculated water.

In addition, 40 mining operations produced and consumed clean energy, representing 35% of the sector's total consumption, and the goal is to reach 46% in 2030.

Camimex reiterated in its report that because the mining industry is capital intensive, investments require long-term certainty.

“In Mexico, there have been various factors that have impacted the competitiveness of the industry in attracting investment, including aspects such as the legal framework, efficiency in handling procedures, fiscal conditions and the lack of incentives for exploration, among others,” the document states.

Rivero said the industry will work with the new authorities in the Claudia Sheinbaum administration to reactivate the permits required. “It’s very important that we’re able to reactivate the issuing of new permits, where we’ve fallen a bit behind in recent years. Only then will we be able to reactivate operations that need permits to continue operating and also to activate new operations,” he said.

The Camimex president reiterated that players in the sector continue working to try to prevent a ban on open-pit mining that is being debated in congress.