Less than a week after Ganfeng Lithium filed an arbitration case against Mexico over a cancelled lithium mining concession, outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said his government would seek to make a deal with the Chinese miner, Reuters reported.
The case centres around the government’s decision last August to cancel Ganfeng’s Sonora concessions after López Obrador’s nationalized Mexico’s nascent lithium industry in 2022.
Ganfeng acquired the advanced stage lithium clay project in Sonora state in 2021 through a buyout of Bacanora Lithium.
The company aimed to start commercial production at the US$800-million project in 2023. However, Mexican legislators approved a bill in April 2022 granting the state full authority over lithium mining, and activities were halted.
Ganfeng, Bacanora Lithium, and Sonora Lithium filed an arbitration request last Friday at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
López Obrador suggested that the dispute with Ganfeng stems from confusion over how previous governments granted concessions — in a generic manner rather than specific to lithium, according to Reuters.
There is currently no commercial production of lithium in Mexico.
López Obrador, whose term ends in September, noted that public-private partnerships for lithium projects are permitted.
Development at the Sonora project includes an open-pit mine and processing facility expected to produce 35,000 tonnes of lithium annually.
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