Víctor Manuel Toledo also highlighted Mexico’s potential for solar energy
by El Reportero’s wire services
Lithium will be Mexico’s “new oil,” Environment Secretary Víctor Manuel Toledo said on Thursday, highlighting the country’s large deposits of the metal used in the manufacture of batteries, among other products.
In fact, the biggest lithium project in the world is in Sonora, according to the company Mining Technology.
It said in August that the mine being developed by Canada’s Bacanora Minerals and China’s Ganfeng Lithium in the municipality of Bacadéhuachi is estimated to hold proven and probable reserves of 243.8 million tonnes, containing 4.5 million tons of lithium-carbonate equivalent.
Bacanora has been operating a pilot plant in Hermosillo for the past four years, producing what it says is high-quality, battery-grade lithium carbonate samples for potential customers.
Construction of the mine was first announced by Sonora Governor Claudia Pavlovich in May 2018 and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2020. Production capacity in its first stage of operations is expected to be 15,500 tons per year of lithium carbonate, Mining Technology said, while capacity will double to 35,000 tons per year in a second stage.
That prospect led Toledo to declare that lithium will be Mexico’s “new oil.”
Potential lithium reserves have also been identified in Baja California, San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas.
The metal, Toledo reporters at the presidential press conference, is “the base not just of computers but also storage batteries” for cell phones and electric cars, among other products.
Therefore, “Mexico should be capable of making electric cars in public factories,” he said, adding that the secretariats of the Environment and Energy are currently analyzing that possibility with Mexico’s “best experts” in the field.
“We’re also one of the richest counties in solar radiation and we’re going to be a country that exports energy to the United States and Latin America,” Toledo added.
“The two most important areas in Latin America for solar radiation are the northeast of Mexico, the deserts, and the border between Chile and Bolivia . . . We’re going to be a solar energy power.”
Source: El Financiero (sp), El Imparcial (sp), Publimetro (sp
López Obrador stresses trade deal with US and Canada is positive step
The Free Trade Agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC), signed on Tuesday, is good for the country as it is attached to its laws, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said this Wednesday.
On evaluating this tripartite trade deal in his morning press conference at the National Palace, the president added that it includes beneficial conditions for workers.
He noted that it also includes more foreign investment and will improve wages, regardless of the government policy of increasing basic salaries.
In this regard, he considered that more labor will be demanded and in many cases this will be qualified, specialized and better paid. In addition, unions will not be allowed to negotiate with companies behind the backs of workers.
Consequently, the agreement, he reiterated, is in accordance with our law, including taking into account workers, as union leaders cannot sign contracts without these being made known to members.
He said that the T-MEC has a global dimension because it will attract a lot of investment from all parts of the world, including Latin America, as Mexico offers a very strong market.
China-Latin America and the Caribbean Business Summit opens in Panama
Nearly 2,000 business representatives and officials from China, Latin America and the Caribbean will meet this Monday for the first time in Panama as part of the XIII China LAC Business Summit.
In previous statements to the press, the President of the organizing committee of the event, Gabriel Barletta, highlighted the role played by this mechanism in the last 13 years, mainly in those nations in the region with which the Asian giant maintains official relations.
He said that Panama’s political and economic stability, which favors the business environment between entrepreneurs and investors, the geographical position and the multimodal logistics platform influenced the decision to hold the meeting in this country.
Barletta added that the Summit will facilitate access to new markets and consolidate Panama as the gateway for entrepreneurs from other latitudes to the American continent.
‘China-LAC is a promotion mechanism and a platform that seeks greater economic cooperation, focused on boosting trade and investment,’ he said.
The China-LAC Summit, which since 2007 brings together companies from China, Latin America and the Caribbean, will meet until Wednesday in the capital’s Atlapa Convention Center.
