Member Article

Amendments to several provisions of the Mexican Mining Law (the “Law”) were recently passed by the Mexican Congress and published in the Federal Official Gazette on April 28, 2005. The amendments to the Law can be summarized as follows: a) A new governmental body called the “Mexican Geological Service” was created in lieu of the previous Mineral Resources Council. The “Mexican Geological Service” is a quasi-autonomous governmental agency in charge of identifying and quantifying Mexico’s potential mineral resources, as well as performing geological investigations. b) Indigenous or farming communities, recognized as such by Mexican law, are now expressly recognized by the Law as entities that may apply for and obtain mining concessions. According to the Law, such indigenous or farming communities have a preferential right over other parties in obtaining mining concessions and in having the right to explore for and exploit mineral deposits in Mexico, provided the land to be covered by the concession is located on or under land occupied by such a community. c) The exploration and exploitation of concessions were deleted from the Law, which now only refers to mining concessions in general (comprising both prior activities). Such concessions will be in force for a 50 year renewable term. Previously, exploration concessions had a non-renewable term of 6 years and exploitation concessions had a renewable term of 50 years. It is important to point out that the amendments to the Law creating the single mining concession will enter into force once certain amendments to the Federal Government Services Charges Law are passed and become effective. If you need further information, do not hesitate to contact the lawyers from the area: Daniel A. Del Río at [email protected] or Juan Carlos Serra at [email protected]