ACAPULCO, Guerrero.- Pedro Rivero González, president of the Mexican Mining Chamber (Camimex), proposed that taxes be invested in works and education, and not in mining exploration, a high-risk activity in Mexico and the world.
“We believe that using your and my public taxes, because we would like to see them dedicated to hospitals, schools, ports, roads and other things that do not have such a great risk (such as mining exploration),” declared the businessman within the framework of the XXXVI International Mining Convention 2025, Mining united by Mexico.
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“We believe that the Mixed Fund is not the best figure and I do not see that the public fund should be dedicated there and that is my opinion,” he expressed.
Investment in exploration is of high financial risk, since of every thousand mines that “we imagine could exist, one could become a mine.”
He warned that if exploration is stopped, the plan to replace the mining reserves will also be stopped, because “there is already a rate today at which we are consuming the reserves.”
“To the extent that we are not able to replace these reserves, we are putting the risk of that mining production in Mexico,” he stated.
He added that exploration is not stopped but rather reduced: “There are no new areas to explore in Mexico,” where 5% of the territory is working and producing minerals.
He said that in 2024 the mining industry generated an economic benefit of 259.4 billion pesos and provided salaries 4.8 times above the welfare line.
He indicated that mining in Mexico is essential for the USMCA value chains, being one of the main producers of 22 minerals, including 9 critical minerals for the energy transition.
Furthermore, he said, this strength makes the mining sector a key actor in Plan Mexico, by providing essential resources for electromobility, clean technologies and advanced manufacturing.
“The future of North America depends on its ability to develop, process and refine its own minerals responsibly. Mexico has the position, the experience and the commitment to be the mining heart of the region,” considered the president of Camimex.
“Today we demonstrate that sustainable mining is not only possible, but is already transforming hundreds of communities and strengthening regional integration,” he said.
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He noted that mining boosts well-being in more than 690 communities, thanks to infrastructure and social development projects.
In environmental matters, he pointed out that only 0.27% of the water granted at the national level is used by mining, and that 71% of the water consumed corresponds to recirculated through closed and residual circuits.
He added that 100 treatment plants operate, and that 41 mining units generate and consume clean energy equivalent to 36% of total energy consumption, with the goal of reaching 44% in 2030.
Camimex reiterated the relevance of strengthening the federal government’s Made in Mexico initiative, highlighting that each technological and energy advance begins with a mineral responsibly produced in the country.
