La Derecha Diario An Announced Failure: LitioMX Inefficient Due to Lack of Budget and Technology
The actual figures of how much lithium there is in the country remain unknown because there is no budget or technology to operate.
A nationalist move promoted by Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Jealous of its lithium, the president stated emphatically: "They won't corner us; the lithium that foreign corporations covet is Mexico's.
With this stance, the reform to the Mining Law was implemented, which nationalized lithium and left its administration in the hands of the state-owned company Litio Mx. However, a year after this announcement, experts warn that the push for lithium in Mexico has stalled.
The mineral remains underground, with no precise data on its quality, quantity, or extraction viability. Another unfulfilled promise of the Morena government.
Lithium in Sonora: between optimism and misinformation
Since 2020, the National Geological Service identified exploration zones with possible lithium in states like Baja California, Zacatecas, Puebla, San Luis Potosí, and Jalisco. However, the government's biggest bet is on Sonora, where expectations are high, but so is uncertainty.
Until 2024, there is no official data on the exact amount of lithium in Mexico. The government has indicated that in Sonora lies the so-called "Sierra de Litio", with an area of 234,855 hectares, according to information from the Official Gazette of the Federation.
It was even claimed that this deposit could be "the largest in the world", with 234 million tons of lithium. However, this figure was an exaggeration. In reality, of those 234 million tons, only 0.85 million actually correspond to lithium, while the rest are common clays.
Mexico doesn't have the technology to extract its lithium
One of the main problems facing lithium exploitation in Mexico is that there is no technology in the country to extract lithium from clay deposits. So far, only the United States, Serbia, and Mexico have reported reserves in these types of formations, but no country has successfully extracted lithium from them.
Without private investment and infrastructure, the nationalization of lithium seems to have been a failure. López Obrador's government bet on lithium sovereignty, but did so without a viable plan for its exploitation. Currently, Mexico doesn't have the infrastructure or technology to take advantage of this resource. Unless the country seriously invests in research and development, lithium will remain just another unfulfilled promise.
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