Mexico City, Mexico — President Andrés Manuel López Obrador signed a decree to nationalize Mexico’s lithium. The decree was signed Saturday in the state of Sonora. López Obrador says now, the mineral has been consolidated as property of the nation for responsible exploration and exploitation.
“What we are doing now is nationalizing lithium so that it cannot be exploited by foreigners, neither from Russia, China nor from the United States. Oil and lithium belong to the nation, to the people of Mexico,” he said in a statement.
López Obrador said that from this provision it will be possible to carry out studies focused on the extraction of lithium in the Mexican subsoil. Because it is under clay, the process is different from that carried out in countries such as Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.
“A process of exploration and technological development begins to obtain the raw material, also with the purpose of installing plants for the production of batteries,” he said.
This mineral is used in the production of electric car batteries. It will cover the demand of the United States and Canada, countries committed to transitioning to the manufacturing of this type of environmentally beneficial vehicles, he added in his statement.
