Mining In Mexico Research Articles

Lithium nexus: Energy, geopolitics, and socio-environmental impacts in Mexico's Sonora project

The global transition to low-carbon energy systems has dramatically increased the demand for lithium, essential for energy storage and transport electrification—with lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries as the dominant technology in both market segments. However, the majority control of its downstream processing by China present challenges. Enter the Sonora Lithium Project in Mexico, home to what could be one of the world's largest lithium deposits. This project symbolizes the convergence of geopolitical stakes, as both China and the United States (U.S.) have keen interests in its success. The Mexican government's 2022 establishment of Litio para México (LitioMx), a national lithium company, could reshape global lithium dynamics, but the influence of powerful drug cartels in the region presents significant security obstacles to rapid development. Further, modern mining's challenges, such as the need for sustainable practices and addressing socio-environmental concerns, come to the fore. Mexico's mining laws thus far fall short in ensuring Indigenous rights and environmental protection. The Sonora project, while promising, highlights the myriad complexities surrounding lithium mining. This paper delves into these challenges using the Sonora Project as a lens, aiming to provide clarity and insights for various decision-makers, stakeholders, and researchers.

Human Rights and Socio-Environmental Conflicts of Mining in Mexico: A Systematic Review

Socio-environmental conflicts are situations that exemplify human rights transgressions caused by extractive activities. These are present in developing countries where extractivism, imperialism, and colonialism paradigms prevail. In the context of Mexico, criminalization, violence, and the absence of rule of law promote these conflicts, frequently aggravated by involvement with private interests. In the last 20 years, the relationship between human rights in the mining sector and its impact on the environment has been a critical research subject. This paper aims to carry out a systematic review to analyze human rights transgressions related to the mining industry’s impact in Mexico, and identify factors causing socio-environmental conflicts. The current study shows a systematic analysis based on the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) methodology. This method contributed to the collection of references that describe conflicts due to human rights transgressions and environmental damage in mining areas in Mexico. Human rights transgressions caused by mining in a Mexican context demonstrate the inability of the state to stop the increase in socio-environmental conflicts and its lack of concern towards preventing damage to the environment.

The Origin of Crony Capitalism in Modern Mexico and its Current Impact on Foreign Direct Investment

This paper analyses to what extent crony capitalism (CC) affects international business activities. By using the case of Canadian companies investing in mining in Mexico, I explain in which ways CC impacts foreign direct investment. My argument is that CC does not imply negative consequences for international business activities if other variables are controlled at the domestic level. CC could even generate positive incentives to foreign investors, deepening corruption problems internally. This type of corruption does not elevate the risk perceived by foreign investors if the process of doing business in Mexico is under the control of domestic power groups.

Mercury Challenges in Mexico: Regulatory, Trade and Environmental Impacts

Primary artisanal mercury (Hg) mining in Mexico continues to proliferate unabated, while official Hg exports have declined in recent years amid speculation of a rising black market trade. In this paper, an assessment of primary Hg mining in Mexico was conducted, with a focus on four sites in Querétaro State. Atmospheric Hg concentrations were measured at two of those sites. In addition, trade data was examined, including Hg exports from Mexico and imports by countries that have a large artisanal gold mining (AGM) sector. Results showed that while annual Hg production in Mexico has ramped up in recent years, official Hg exports reduced from 307 tonnes in 2015 to 63 tonnes in 2019. Since 2010, mercury exports to Colombia, Peru and Bolivia have represented 77% of Mexico’s total Hg trade. As the large majority of Hg trade with these countries is apparently destined for the AGM sector, which is contrary to Article 3 of the Minamata Convention, there is evidence that increased international scrutiny has led to an increase in unregulated international transfers. Atmospheric Hg concentrations at the mines show dangerously high levels, raising concern over the risk of significant health impacts to miners and other community members.

Challenges of the environmental management of Mining in Mexico

Mexico has a high potential in terms of mineral resources, promoting investment, employment generation and strong fiscal contributions; mining activity at the national level has incorporated strategies that also allow it to comply with environmental protection requirements, so it recognizes that sustainable development allows it to harmonize this economic growth, with the right of future generations to achieve their well-being. Based on the descriptions provided in a Focus Group composed of the members of Minera Tierra Adentro, environmental challenges are identified that the Mexican Mining and Metallurgical Industry faces with respect to the fulfillment of goals derived from the Sustainable Development Goals (UN, 2015). Therefore, the objective of this work is to describe the main environmental challenges currently faced by mining companies in Mexico, to contribute as a sector oriented towards sustainability. The methodology, of qualitative nature, includes documentary research and the analysis of different sources of information through its reading and reflection, the Focal Group is also used as a technique for the collection of information.

Atlas de la minería metálica en México

La minería es una actividad cada vez más importante de analizar, tanto por sus impactos ambientales como sociales. Sin embargo, la información sobre el despliegue territorial de esta actividad no es de dominio público. En respuesta a este pro- blema, en el trabajo presentamos la cartografía completa sobre minería metálica en México. Gracias al uso de Sistemas de Información Geográfica se logró la realiza- ción de un Atlas, en el cual se muestra el despliegue espacial de esta actividad a lo largo del territorio nacional. Presentamos principalmente la relación de proyectos y concesiones mineras con zonas importantes para el recurso hídrico, bajo alguna categoría de protección ambiental y territorios indígenas.

Resistance to Canadian mining projects in Mexico: lessons from the lifecycle of the San Xavier Mine in San Luis Potosí

<p>This article analyses resistance movements to large-scale mining projects in Mexico, particularly the case of sustained organized resistance to the San Xavier Mine, in the central north state of San Luis Potosí. As one of the first struggles in Mexico against Canadian mining projects after the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the leaders of this movement pioneered strategies of resistance on the legal front and were instrumental in building anti-mining alliances and networks on the national and international levels. Now that the excavation process has finished and the mine is closing down, this article seeks to draw on the case to illustrate the complementarity of three approaches for interpreting resistance to mining: class struggle, ecological distribution conflicts, and the clash of cultural valuations over territorial vocation. The argument is that these approaches are not mutually exclusive; they can be combined to explain the multiple dimensions of specific struggles, whose shifts in emphasis at different moments of the struggle are conditioned by – and condition – the phase of a mine's development. By contextualizing the case study in a broader analysis of social environmental conflicts around mining in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America, the analysis seeks to illustrate the ways in which the struggle against the San Xavier Mine is representative of broader trends, as well as its peculiarities. On the local level, we find the struggle has more to do with defending conditions of social and cultural reproduction than protecting the means of production that sustain traditional livelihoods. This pertains, not just to a non-contaminated living environment and the availability of clean water for human consumption, but also to the conservation of natural and architectural patrimony with historic and cultural significance.</p><p><strong>Key words</strong>: Mining conflicts, Canadian imperialism, political class formation, ecological distribution, cultural valuations</p>

Mercury mining in Mexico

Mercury mining in Mexico

Mercury mining in Mexico: Community engagement to improve health outcomes from artisanal mining

Mercury mining in Mexico: Community engagement to improve health outcomes from artisanal mining

Concesiones, explotación minera y conflicto en la frontera Jalisco-Colima

This work is a preview of the “state of art” of mining legislation, production, profits and damages, in particular within the borders of Garcia Barragan Cuautitlan, Jalisco, and Minatitlan, Colima. This topic is relevant considering that mining in Mexico has exponentially grown in recent years, and after that has left entire villages affected in their agricultural properties, natural resources and their social-territorial organizations. The incursion of transnational companies are leaving behind deforestation, infertile land, and water, air and wind pollution. The aim of the study is to document this fact in relation to others, linked to global processes. This particular case was documented by archival research, newspaper archives, cartographic and field research. The result is a text that explains the unique situation that contributes the overall situation of Mexico and Latin America.

Mercury Mining in Mexico: I. Community Engagement to Improve Health Outcomes from Artisanal Mining

BackgroundMercury is an element that cannot be destroyed and is a global threat to human and environmental health. In Latin America and the Caribbean, artisanal and small-scale gold mining represents the main source of mercury emissions, releases, and consumption. However, another source of concern is the primary production of mercury. In the case of Mexico, in the past 2 years the informal production of mercury mining has increased 10-fold. Considering this scenario, an intervention program was initiated to reduce health risks in the mining communities. The program's final goal is to introduce different alternatives in line to stop the mining of mercury, but introducing at the same time, a community-based development program. ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to present results from a preliminary study in the community of Plazuela, located in the municipality of Peñamiller in the State of Queretaro, Mexico. MethodsTotal mercury was measured in urine and environmental samples using atomic absorption spectrometry by cold vapor technique. Urine samples were collected from children aged 6-14 years and who had lived in the selected area from birth. Urine samples were also collected from miners who were currently working in the mine. To confirm the presence of mercury in the community, mining waste, water, soil, and sediment samples were collected from those high-risk areas identified by members of the community. FindingsChildren, women, and miners were heavily exposed to mercury (urine samples); and in agreement, we registered high concentrations of mercury in soils and sediments. ConclusionConsidering these results and taking into account that the risk perception toward mercury toxicity is very low in the community (mining is the only economic activity), an integral intervention program has started.

Social Environmental Mining Conflicts in Mexico

Examination of social environmental conflicts around mining in Mexico indicates that neoliberal reforms have facilitated “accumulation by dispossession,” first by transferring public resources in the form of mineral rights and state-run mining companies to the private sector and second by dispossessing smallholder farmers and indigenous communities of their land, water, and cultural landscapes in order to allow mining companies to carry out their activities. The resistance movements that have emerged to confront this dispossession are led on the local level by people whose livelihoods, health, and cultures are threatened by large-scale mining projects. They reflect “the environmentalism of the poor” in that they seek to keep natural resources outside of the sphere of the capitalist mode of production.El examen de los conflictos socioambientales en torno a la minería en México indica que las reformas neoliberales han facilitado la “acumulación por desposesión”: primero, transferiendo recursos públicos en forma de concesiones mineras y compañías paraestatales al sector privado y, segundo, despojando a los pequeños agricultures y a las comunidades indígenas de sus tierras, agua y paisajes culturales con el fin de permitirle a las compañías mineras llevar a cabo sus actividades. Los movimientos de resistencia que han surgido para afrontar este despojo están dirigidos en el plano local por personas cuyos medios de subsistencia, su salud y su cultura se ven amenazadas por los proyectos de minería en gran escala. Ellos reflejan “el ecologismo de los pobres” ya que buscan mantener los recursos naturales fuera de la esfera del modo de producción capitalista.

Free-Market Mining in Mexico

This paper examines the impact of neoliberal reforms on Mexico’s mining sector, with a focus on the social and environmental conflicts that have emerged since the 1990s. It distinguishes between two types of conflict: labor conflicts, which stem from intensified labor exploitation in the realm of expanded reproduction; and eco-territorial conflicts around accumulation by dispossession. It argues that free-market mining in Mexico has led to Mexican oligopoly control, Canadian imperialism and narco-mining.

History of Field Observations on Volcanic Rocks of Western Mexico, Pre-Columbian to Recent

By the time the first detailed reports on western Mexico's volcanic rocks had begun to appear in the 1970s, most of the earlier observations on these rocks and most knowledge of those who made these observations were all but forgotten. A review of previous field observations in this region shows, however, a long history of geologic discovery reflecting or even preceding developments elsewhere.Ethnological studies suggest that the Pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Sierra Madre Occidental (SMO) observed the characteristics of rock formations in their sierra homeland and understood something of the regional stratigraphic relationships. Late sixteenth and early seventeenth century explorers of the Spanish Colonial Period singled out volcanic rock known to them as piedra de malpaís for special recognition, and Padre Kino and his fellow explorers clearly recognized the volcanic origin of piedra de malpaís decades prior to similar observations in Europe. As the Spanish Colonial Period came to a close, Andrés Manuel del Río help organize a state-of-theart mining college in Mexico City where students were instructed in Werner's geognosy prior to their taking positions in Mexico's mining industry, most of it located in western Mexico's volcanic rocks.Although the first part of the tumultuous period between Mexico's revolutions of 1810 and 1910 saw few advances in geological knowledge, the reign of President Porfirio Díaz produced a geologic map of Mexico, the founding of the Instituto de Geología, and an ‘American invasion’ of geologists and mining engineers who locally gathered information on the nature of volcanic rocks of western Mexico. During the same period, Instituto geologist Ezequiel Ordóñez established the general stratigraphic sequence in the SMO, recognized the widespread occurrence of rhyolite there, and applied the petrographic microscope to the study of SMO volcanic rocks. The first identification of ignimbrites in the SMO came as a result of the World War II-era search for strategic minerals, and NASA's push to put a man on the Moon supported a series of student mapping projects producing the SMO's first geologic maps showing individual ignimbrite units and calderas.

The prehistoric drug trade: widespread consumption of cacao in Ancestral Pueblo and Hohokam communities in the American Southwest

We propose the existence of extensive trade and interaction among the peoples of the American Southwest and Mesoamerica. We base this inference on our detection of the widespread presence of theobromine, the biomarker for cacao, in 50 of 75 vessels used by Ancestral Puebloans (previously referred to as Anasazi) elites and non-elites from the Four Corners area and Hohokam elites of the Gila and Salt river valleys in the prehistoric American Southwest. We used a non-invasive, non-destructive aqueous sampling procedure that provides conservation advantages over the current methods that require crushing and boiling sherds or removing residues from vessel surfaces. Analysis of these samples by sensitive LC-MS instrumentation capable of detecting nanogram quantities of material revealed theobromine in non-local vessel forms found in elite burials in great house and platform mound sites as well as in local vessel forms used by non-elites living in small unit-pueblos. After elimination of plants native to the Southwest as the source of theobromine, we conclude that either Theobroma cacao or Theobroma Bicolor was imported from its homeland in the Mesoamerican tropical coastal lowlands. Our results are at odds with the current consensus that there was little systematic commerce between Mesoamerican and Southwestern polities. We suggest that cacao was exchanged for high quality turquoise such as that mined in the Cerrillos, New Mexico mining district. We conclude that, far from being isolated developmentally, this trade integrally tied populations in the American Southwest to the socio-political and economic activities of Mesoamerican states.

The Environmental Dynamics of a Colonial Fuel-Rush: Silver Mining and Deforestation in New Spain, 1522 to 1810

AbstractThis essay is part of a larger project that investigates the environmental effects of mining in Mexico. Although mining played a critical role in the economic, political, and social develop...

Environmental behaviour of metals from tailings in shallow rivers: Taxco, central Mexico

Mining in Mexico has produced important economic benefits since pre-Hispanic times. On the other hand, tailings and rock wastes constitute potential pollution sources in many zones of the country. Taxco, about 150 km south-west of Mexico City, is one of the historical mining zones of Mexico. The environmental behaviour of metals from tailings in a branch of the Taxco river was investigated. Several communities use the Taxco river water along its flow. Samples were taken from tailings, river-waters and sediments. Field determinations included conductivity, pH, Eh, temperature and alkalinity of the water. Mineralogical and chemical analyses were performed in tailings and sediments. Water analyses included main ions, and metals in acidified filtered and unfiltered samples. Quartz, jarosite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, Fe oxihydroxides, gypsum, clay and silica minerals were identified in the tailings. All samples had an acid pH (2·50–4·16) and high concentrations of Pb (up to 2750 mg/kg), Zn (up to 690 mg/kg) and As (up to 3530 mg/kg). Mineralogical and chemical characteristics of tailings indicated occurrence of sulphide oxidation. Higher metal concentrations were found in unfiltered, acidified water samples than in filtered water samples in the year 2000: Fe (up to 21·2 mg/l), Zn (up to 13·4 mg/l) Pb (up to 0·115 mg/l) and As (up to 0·035 mg/l). Zn, Fe and Pb reached much higher concentrations in the dry season than in the rainy season. The Taxco river water does not comply with Mexican drinking water standards. High concentrations of Pb (up to 5280 mg/kg) and Zn (up to 33,500 mg/kg) were measured in sediments. Pb and Zn in sediments accumulated downflow in the dry season. A more uniform distribution was found in the rainy season. Results showed that metals are released from tailings as a result of sulphide oxidation and rain-water erosion. Metals are then transported by the river-water mainly in particulate form and, after settling, increase the concentration of metals in the sediments.

Marine Minerals in the Mexican Pacific: Toward Efficient Resource Management

Vast reserves of marine minerals are known to occur within the Mexican Exclusive Economic Zone. These reserves include: (1) heavy mineral placers rich in titanium and iron along the coast of San Antonio del Mar, Baja California and the southern States of Oaxaca and Guerrero; (2) phosphorites, which represent the only source for superphosphate fertilizers along the Pacific coast off the Baja California peninsula and the Gulf of Tehuantepec; and (3) manganese oxide deposits in nodule and crusts located adjacent to the Clarion-Clipperton Zone and containing high concentrations of Cu + Ni + Co (up to 1.9%), which are essential for the steel and super-alloy industries. Few but important efforts toward surveying these deposits have been carried out by Mexican and international researchers. Relevant data generated by these investigations are reviewed here and put together in a single document. Adequate knowledge of Mexican mineral resources is essential for the development of management strategies when offshore mining starts during this century. Thus, the review discusses the economics inherent to ocean mining in Mexico, setting baselines for future exploration and development activities in the Mexican Exclusive Economic Zone.

THRESHOLD LIMITS FOR SELENIUM IN THE COAL MINING AREAS OF NEW MEXICO

The concerns for selenium (Se) toxicity problems became a major issue to the coal mining industry in the western United States during the 1970s. Problems with Se toxicity in aquatic ecosystems led to a great amount of speculation with regard to Se levels found in backfill and soil materials at surface coal mines. Regulatory agencies quickly established standards to deal with the potential calamity based on limited databases which were conservative in the context of today's knowledge of the Se toxicity issue. The economic impact of these standards has been substantial as a result of regulatory mitigation requirements. Analysis of data collected in the western United States demonstrates that Se levels corresponding to near maximum threshold limits do not usually result in toxic levels of Se in the vetation. For example, at the San Juan Mine, New Mexico, the mean hot-water soluble Se for backfill materials was 0.122 ppm which is above the suitability limit of 0.10 ppm previously used as the maximum by the New Mexico Mining and Minerals Division. Corresponding levels of Se found in four wing saltbush were about 0.84 ppm Se. Therefore, near maximum threshold levels of hot-water soluble Se found in the backfill material results in Se levels of four wing saltbush that are much lower than the 5.0 ppm chronic toxicity level for vegetation. At the Navajo Mine, cattle grazing reclaimed lands exhibited a deficiency in blood Se levels as opposed to a toxicity. There is clear evidence that chronic Se toxicity to limestock and wildlife is unlikely on grazing rangeland or reclaimed mine land and is only problematic on three sites that provide limited alternatives to high Se vegetation. 41 refs., 2 figs., 1 tab.

Native American, African, and hispanic communities during the middle period in the Colonial Americas

As a coherent era in the colonial period of Spanish America, the 17th century begins about 1575 with the end of the conquest phase and continues for 150 years until ca. 1725, when dramatically transformed international trade, the beginnings of economic florescence in previously fringe areas such as Central America, Venezuela, Chile, and Buenos Aires, and the resurgence of silver mining in Mexico after nearly a century of stagnation engendered a new epoch. Seven teenth-century Spanish America has a certain coherence, for while it was far from a stagnant period, the parameters of most of the develop ments were circumscribed and generally can be seen as logical extensions of what had already begun to emerge in the conquest era. The in terpretive syntheses of colonial Latin America composed by James Lockhart and Stuart B. Schwartz (1983) and by Lyle N. McAlister (1984) are of great value to understanding the defining characteristics of the 17th century. These are the first broadly conceived publica tions on the colonial period to integrate the con siderable social history and ethnohistory com posed about the era into their approaches and findings. Thus the primary focus of both, though in the former more than in the latter, is on the colonial societies themselves rather than