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News Usmca Partners Will Be Able To Partner With Litiomx

The nationalization of lithium exploitation after last April’s reform to the Mining Law will not be an obstacle for U.S. and Canadian companies to invest in this sector.

Private investment will be possible as long as it is in association with the Mexican State, whose vehicle for such purpose will be the public company LitioMx -which will have the majority shareholding.

Access to the business will be exclusively for national investors, or from the United States and Canada, Mexico’s partners in the USMCA.

This was stated in mid-November by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, when he gave details of the so-called Sonora Plan, which is the strategy to be adopted by the Mexican government to exploit the mineral.

In addition to lithium exploitation, Plan Sonora includes the construction of solar energy plants, infrastructure, and logistics, in order to cover the entire mineral value chain.

The intention would be to tie the initiative with the plan promoted by the United States government to develop the entire electromobility value chain in North America, for which Washington approved last year the so-called CHIPS Act, which provides for the granting of up to 50 billion dollars in incentives to U.S. companies.

According to Lopez Obrador, a pillar of financing for Plan Sonora would be precisely the U.S. government, which would be willing to grant credits.

“In the case of the electricity industry, they are going to help, they decided that there will be investments, that there will be credits at low rates because it is about producing clean energy, it is very important to us”, said Lopez Obrador in his conference last December 20.