This editorial by Napoleón Gómez Urrutia originally appeared in the October 9, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.
It is a strategic error to underestimate the vital importance of the mining sector for the country’s economic, technological, and employment development. Mining is one of the industries that contributes the most to the national GDP, representing 2.77 percent in 2024. However, despite its enormous potential, the sector faces significant challenges that limit its growth and projection, reflected in the decline in its share of national value added, which fell from 19.9 percent in 2008 to just 7 percent in 2023. For Mexico to take full advantage of this industry, it is essential to strengthen it under three fundamental principles: respect for national laws and international conventions, respect for labour and community rights, and respect for the environment.
One of the most pressing challenges is the lack of specific secondary laws regulating mining exploration and environmental remediation plans, which are necessary to ensure sustainable development and ecosystem conservation. Consequently, investment in mining exploration is at its lowest level in a decade, estimated at just $583 million by 2025, compared to $1.165 billion in 2012. This restricts the ability to discover new deposits and renew depleted or low-metal reserves. This scenario also increases costs and environmental risks.
In this context, the mining sector must diversify to stop depending on imports of strategic minerals and guarantee fair and decent working conditions for mining workers, aligning with international standards. Key projects, such as LitioMX, need to be activated for the mining industry to take off, given the vital importance of lithium in the global energy transition. Now more than ever, it is crucial to create and consolidate the necessary institutions to ensure the full development of this basic sector of the national economy.
A particularly strategic area is rare earths, minerals with unique properties essential for the manufacture of advanced technologies, such as permanent magnets for electric vehicles, wind generators, electronic devices, and renewable energy technologies, which also serve the communications and commercial aeronautics and space sectors. Mexico has significant deposits in states such as Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Oaxaca, which, combined with its geographic proximity to the United States and existing trade agreements with other countries, gives it magnificent potential for integration into global value chains.
Napoleón Gómez Urrutia
However, greater investment in exploration, research, and technological development is still needed for sustainable extraction and processing, as well as leveraging the recovery of rare earths from electronic scrap to reduce environmental impacts and add economic value. Technological advances and global demand for these minerals cannot, under any circumstances, represent environmental damage to our nation.
In this sense, the State has an irreplaceable role as the guiding force of mining economic policy, controlling the development and growth of the sector, especially in the face of the demands of new technologies and emerging minerals. We cannot leave everything in the hands of private investment, as it is essential to protect our national heritage. From the National Miners’ Union, I have advocated at various international meetings for unity and the defense of workers’ rights, accepting private investment, whether national or foreign, only if labour rights, national legislation, international conventions, communities, and the environment are strictly respected. As I stated at the beginning, these are the three key pillars that should guide the strengthening of the mining sector.
Furthermore, mining could benefit from the incorporation of technologies that optimize decision-making to balance productivity and sustainability. However, structural challenges persist, such as job insecurity and the depletion of reserves, which negatively affect the sector’s prospects. Specifically, there is no mining without the skills, experience, and dedication of mining workers; nor is there industrial growth without metals. Therefore, it is urgent to expand labour rights and guarantee their full and effective enforcement. At the same time, the recent tariff policies imposed by the United States, which generated significant declines in Mexican steel and aluminum exports, demonstrate the need for solid national strategies to protect the sector from external factors.
In short, for mining in Mexico to recover and expand its strategic role, a firm commitment from the State is essential, as well as regulatory updates that include clear laws for exploration and environmental remediation, respect for labor and community rights, technological investment, and the promotion of responsible diversification that allows for self-sufficiency in strategic minerals such as metals for the energy transition and rare earths. Only then, with an integrated vision that respects fundamental principles, can mining contribute decisively to the country’s economic, technological, and social development.
As President and General Secretary of the National Union of Miners, my commitment is to protect and fight for workers’ rights, but also to actively contribute to the shared and sustainable well-being of our nation.
Strategic Minerals & Mexico’s Future
October 9, 2025October 9, 2025
We cannot leave everything in the hands of private investment, as it is essential to protect our national heritage, writes Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, head of the National Miners’ Union.
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