In a forum organized by the state government of Veracruz, in mouth of the river, the Secretary of Energy, Dew Nahle, guaranteed that the amendment to the Constitution in electrical matter that is discussed in the federal Congress will not have mining expropriation some and in fact the dealers of lithium exploitation they maintain their titles, although this is an incipient industry in the country today and as of the approval of the changes, no new concessions will be granted to private parties for this strategic material in the electricity storage.
According to Nahle, lithium is a strategic ore that is only found in 12 countries in the world and Mexico is one of them, with a potential of 2% in the soil and it must be reserved so that its exploitation is for the benefit of the people.
To this end, Articles 25 and 28 of the Constitution will be modified, specifying that the lithium is owned by the nation and the exclusive exploitation of the State shall not constitute a monopoly.
However, he clarified that this does not imply any expropriation of concessions granted for mines of other materials, such as gold, silver and copper, mainly, which will be maintained under the current conditions and terms for these minerals, although with the explicit prohibition of the exploitation of lithium.
Meanwhile, the sixth transitory of the modification to the Magna Carta will point out that “the mining concessions already granted by the Mexican State and for which gold, silver, copper and other minerals are already being explored or exploited are preserved in the terms that were However, these concessions do not cover the exploitation and production of lithium“.
However, to the mining concessions already granted by the Mexican State where to date there is a history of lithium exploration duly endorsed by the Ministry of Economy, the restriction referred to in the previous paragraph will not be applied.
In his conference, he specified that currently 99% of the population in Mexico has electrical coverage and this is due to the fact that the CFE has a social commitment and for this reason it is present throughout the country, so in this reform the legal separation of the company is eliminated so that it operates as a State agency with legal personality and its own assets, being responsible for electricity and National Electric System, as well as its planning and control.
In this sense, Nahle García added that to guarantee the electrical dispatch in order of merit of production costs and not in a chaotic manner as imposed by the 2013 Energy Reform, the National Energy Control Center (Prices) rejoins the CFE where the company will control the dispatch of electricity each day. With it the CFE you will be able to sell your produced electricity and obtain higher income; likewise, it will continue to guarantee to bring constant energy to the 46.2 million users 24 hours a day at low prices.
On the other hand, the Secretary of Energy recalled that a scheme called legacy contract was imposed on the CFE, which are agreements imposed between two of its subsidiaries so that they buy electricity from each other at generally high prices that impact the company’s finances. of the State. Given this, he said that the Electrical Reform proposes to eliminate said legacy contracts and a change in the dispatch of electricity, which would be in the following order: 1: hydroelectric; 2: core; 3: geothermal; 4: CFE gas; 5: CFE conventional thermal; 6: wind; 7: sun; 8: private gas, and 9: private coal.
Once again, Nahle García reiterated that this new scheme will allow the Federal electricity commission (CFE) generates at least 54% of the electricity required by the country and private companies 46%, (equivalent to the entire electricity market in Argentina); “This guarantees each and every Mexican energy security, where the CFE maintains the mission of social service and with it that electricity rates can be kept at a price below inflation,” he said.