Mexico City — The government of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) is budgeting half a million US dollars for newly created state-owned company Lithium for Mexico (LitioMx).
The Energy Ministry (Sener) has requested Congress approve 9.7 nillion pesos ($550,000) for the company created in August 2022, according to the 2024 federal expenditure budget bill.
Sener’s strategy for 2024 contemplates that LitioMx will create and implement standards, programs, projects, processes, actions and value chains that will allow the management of the country’s lithium resources and generate profits for the country.
The objective is to achieve the exploration, exploitation and use of lithium with the participation of the government, private companies and the social sector.
“It will also manage and control the economic value chains of said mineral, so that the country can take advantage of the wealth that can be generated,” according to Sener.
The amount requested represents a marginal figure compared to the budgets of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and state utility Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), which have each requested more than $26 billion for next year.
Bloomberg Línea consulted Sener and LitioMx on the subject, but did not obtain a response.
LitioMx was launched one day after AMLO’s legislative defeat in Congress, which rejected his electricity reform on April 17. On April 18, the majority of deputies approved a reform to the Mining Law to nationalize the country’s resources of the mineral used for electric batteries.
Pablo Taddei, CEO of LitioMx, previously said in an interview with Bloomberg Línea that there will be no lithium extraction or processing during this six-year term, which ends in 2024, but projects would be initiated, probably with private companies.
“While we are not going to see lithium processed or extracted, we are going to start projects,” he said.