Today Deputy Secretary for Business and Industry, Lorenza Martínez, from Mexico’s Secretariat of Economics, affirmed the Mexican government's compromise to continue legal guarantees in order to attract more Canadian mining investments.

Source: Notimex

8/3/2011. At the start of Mexican Miners Day, at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) international convention in this Canadian city, this official maintained that only 25% of Mexican territory has been explored.

Martínez encouraged Canadian mining entrepreneurs to continue investing in Mexico, and highlighted that, “Mexico has a stable economy, is strategically located, has 11 business treaties with 43 countries, has a competitive and specialized labor force, and that its mining laws provide guarantees to concessioners.”

The Mexican Deputy Secretary stressed that in the past, companies needed to obtain two separate permits; one for exploration and a second one for extraction, but she also stated that now only a single permit is required.

In an interview with Notimex, Martínez stated that the greatest endorsement of Mexican mining is that Mexico is now the world’s number one silver producer.

She maintained that, "In terms of attracting mining investments, we are the fourth largest in the world and the largest in Latin America.  This speaks to Mexico's great potential and demonstrates that there are adequate conditions for making foreign investments successful."

Canada represents 75% of the total foreign investment in the Mexican mining sector.

When speaking about the Mexican government's pursuits to attract more Canadian investments, she explained that Mexico is the first country to rely on software that allows electronic access to geological, geophysical, and infrastructure information, as well as information from its concessions.

She added, "We also have a multidisciplinary group (…) to follow up on mining projects, improve legal guarantees, and prevent mining investments from failing due to regulation or inconsistencies between various government bodies."

When speaking about Mexican Miners Day, the Canadian ambassador to Mexico,  Guillermo Rishchynski, stated that Mexico's mining regulations have contributed to the success of Canadian mining projects in that nation.

"Of the 286 foreign mines in Mexico, 210 (73%) are Canadian.  Investments in the mining sector make up 44% or all Canadian investment in Mexico.

Aside from the $4.4 billion invested in Mexican mining in 2010, there were $2.07 billion in foreign investments, of which $1.952 billion (94%) came from Canadian companies."

BMV will include Canadian mining companies

During his presentation in the forum, the president of the Mexican Stock Exchange, Luis Téllez, explained to Notimex that he is working with the Toronto Stock Exchange to revise its regulations to allow it to list small mining companies and allow them to be quoted in Mexico as well as in Toronto.

"We work very closely with the Toronto Exchange and we expect to have dual listings," stated Téllez.

The Deputy Secretary for Environmental Protection and Management, from the Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources of Mexico, Mauricio Limón, spoke about how the process has been simplified and how this has reduced the time needed by companies to complete environmental impact studies.

Cases of successful mining companies, such as Grupo México, Goldcorp, and Fresnillo PLC were released on the first day of Mexican Miners Day.