Total mining investment in Mexico fell in 2023, won't recover this year

Total investment in the non-oil mining industry in Mexico fell 5.8% in 2023 to US$4.96 billion and all indications are that it will not recover significantly this year, with mining chamber Camimex estimating that it would climb only 3.4% to US$5.13bn.

This figure would still not offset the drop in investment seen last year from the US$5.27bn reported in 2022.

In its 2023 annual report presented on Wednesday, Camimex estimated that of the investment recorded in the sector last year, at least 59% was made by Mexican companies affiliated with the chamber and 32% by Canadian companies. It noted that “the majority was comprised by previously budgeted projects."

“The item that recorded the most significant decrease was the development of new projects, with an annual drop of 50.7%, totaling US$383 million in 2023. For its part, investment in exploration registered a slight increase of 6.1% due to budgets already assigned,” the chamber said.

Investments in exploration reached US$607mn, according to data compiled in the report.

Based on official data from the ministry of economy (SE), Camimex said that in 2023, foreign direct investment (FDI) in metallic and non-metallic mining reached US$2.11bn, which represents 42% of the total capital received and was up almost 150% versus the FDI in mining in 2022.

“These numbers are influenced by the rising price of metals, mainly by gold and silver,” he said about the behavior of FDI.

The president of Camimex, Jaime Gutiérrez, said in the presentation of the report that last year was “challenging” for the world economy and for mining activity in Mexico, which shrank 2% due to external and internal conditions that affected its performance.

The value of national mining-metallurgy production totaled 262bn pesos (US$14.7bn), down 17.6% compared with 2022.

“At the national level we face regulatory reforms that restrict exploration and the development of new projects," said Gutiérrez, pointing out that the mining industry's share of GDP fell from 2.89% in 2022 to 2.75% in 2023, while its share of industrial GDP dipped from 9.09% in 2022 to 8.63% last year.

Metallic and non-metallic mining has been affected by the policy of freezing the granting of new concessions by the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, as well as by the uncertainty generated after the mining reform in May 2023 which, among other changes, ceded new exploration activities exclusively to geological service SGM.

The lack of regulations for four amended laws that apply to the sector has kept various mining processes stopped, especially those linked to exploration.

However, Gutiérrez underlined that, despite the unfavorable outlook for the sector, Mexico was still among the top 10 global producers of 16 metals and minerals.

“Given the importance of the energy transition and nearshoring, responsible mining reaffirms its commitment to Mexico to work hand in hand with the new government to continue developing socially and environmentally responsible mining that promotes these government objectives,” he added.