Mining Law: NGOs point out that amendments approved and focused on lithium are insufficient

On Sunday, April 17, after the rejection of the implementation of the Electricity Reform, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador sent proposals to the Chamber of Deputies to amend the Mining Law in order to promote Mexico's sovereignty over lithium.

Thus, with a simple majority, Morena, PT and PVEM approved the amendments, in general and in particular to the non-reserved articles of the Mining Law Reform on April 18.

It is in this context that NGOs, academics and communities belonging to the Cambiemosla ya movement and ALDEA called for taking advantage of the initiative to “make profound changes to the law.”

Although the defenders of the territory have assured that they see positive that the Executive Branch proposes reforms to the law, they pointed out that the amendment proposal sent by the Executive and recently approved in a vote in the Chamber of Deputies “is very limited.”

“(...) does not correspond to the depth with which the problem is located in the statement of reasons, nor does it correct the violating content of the articles that have enabled the handing over of territories to the private and systematic violations of rights against indigenous, Afro-Mexican and comparable peoples and communities, as well as against agrarian nuclei”, they say.

It should be noted that this movement brings together peoples, communities, civil organizations, academics, and land and territory defenders for two years in order to promote “profound” reform.

Its main points focus on the fact that since it was issued in 1992, the Mining Law “was designed to protect and guarantee the interests of private companies, both domestic and foreign, in order to obtain concessions without the rights of the people of Mexico being imported”

In doing so, they stated that the current purposes of the Mining Law “are not reconcilable” with the Constitution or international human rights treaties and raised a number of points to be amended:

Eliminate the public utility and preference nature of mining activities. The current initiative of the Executive should not give lithium the same character, because it will make it possible to prioritize lithium mining over the activities carried out by communities in their territories.

-To give effect to the right of communities and peoples to decide on the granting of mining concessions in their territories.

-Change the abusive scheme and regime of concessions (concessions last up to 100 years, there is no distinction between concessions for exploration and exploitation, there are facilities to transfer it and there are no limits on the number of hectares that can be concessioned, among others).

-Remove the privileges of access to land and water that are granted to companies.

-Shielding Protected Natural Areas, Sacred Sites, Archaeological Sites and Ramsar. Prohibit the mining of precious metals using open pit techniques, as well as the use of cyanide and mercury in leaching processes.

-That mining companies transparent information related to their activity, including what is related to their financial statements.

According to information shared by the government agency, there are currently 24,066 mining concessions in force in the country distributed over 16.83 million hectares (equivalent to 8.59% of the national territory) SEMARNAT noted that, as a result, it has already dealt with several “cases of environmental damage caused by mining, in which indigenous peoples were linked and affected.

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