More time needed for the location of lithium deposits in Mexico: Flor de María Harp

Following the fact that the Electricity Reform was not approved in the Chamber of Deputies in the session of Sunday, April 17, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador he warned that he had a “plan b”, which would be presented to citizens at his press conference this Monday, 18.

This is the draft decree amending and adding new precepts to the Mining Law. This initiative, unlike the Electricity Reform, only requires a simple majority to be approved, so Morena and her allies (Labor Party and Green Ecologist Party of Mexico) would not need the support of the opposition bloc.

The initiative aims to make lithium, as well as other minerals strategic for the energy transition, exclusively owned by the nation, so that the Mexican State will be the only one that can exploit this natural resource for the benefit of the people of Mexico. It also seeks to prevent private capital from participating in mining allocations related to lithium.

However, more time is needed to locate the deposits of this resource for extraction, without any guarantee that they are economically viable, said Flor de María Harp, director general of the Mexican Geological Survey, which will support the decentralized agency assigned by the Mexican government in the work of the recognition and location of geological areas where lithium reserves can be found.

At a monthly press conference of the Mexican Geological Society, held on March 30, Flor Harp reported that as of February 2022, 66 geographical areas have been evaluated out of the 82 that were included in the lithium exploration program, and 73 others were identified for evaluation. In addition, two areas have been protected as a mining assignment on request: San Sebastián and Ammonitas.

Of the studies carried out, 8 localities were identified where, according to their geological conditions, lithium could be found. Three were located in Puebla, three in Jalisco and two more in San Luis Potosí.

Likewise, he explained that this metal is more likely to be located in clay layers in lake environments (areas that are related to a lake); however, a route for its extraction would have to be metallurgically studied, since the cost of extracting lithium from clay is very high. He also acknowledged that Mexico does not have the technology necessary for these works.

While he pointed out that Bacanora Litium (one of the 8 mining companies that have concessions in Mexico to exploit lithium) does have this technology, he indicated that this is what they have developed based on the mineral species they have, which is polylithionite. He even warned that it would take between 3 and 4 years to build a processing plant that would cost billions of dollars.

In this regard, the head of the SGM warned that the current exploration program is very short, so it would take more than eight months to evaluate sites with lithium potential. As an example, he explained that in order to have a reasonable knowledge about a locality that could become a mineral deposit, it can take 10 to 15 years.

It should be recalled that in early February, the federal president announced that a state-owned company would be created to exploit the so-called “white gold”, which is used for electric car batteries, for example. “It has already been decided that lithium will be exploited for the benefit of Mexicans. We are going to create a company from Mexico, from the nation, for lithium,” he commented at his morning press conference.

Finally, in October 2021, the SGM indicated that 55.2 million pesos would be invested over the next two years (a time Flor Harp considered “short”) for lithium exploration, in order to gather sufficient information on the amount of this metal in Mexico and thus determine whether its extraction is economically viable.

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