Mexico is a stable economic powerhouse with the world’s 13th largest GDP [1]
Mexico is a party to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (formerly NAFTA), a longstanding trade agreement that provides protections to foreign ownership of mineral concessions.
Mexican Mining Permitting Progress
President Claudia Sheinbaum introduced Plan México on January 13, 2026. The strategy targets stronger domestic supply chains, faster regulatory approvals, and more foreign investment. [2] Plan México names mining as a foundation of the economy, central to Mexico's energy transition and industrial self-sufficiency. [3]
The U.S. and Mexico signed a bilateral Action Plan on Critical Minerals on February 4, 2026, only the third such agreement Washington reached that year. Copper made the list of five priority minerals, alongside silver, lithium, graphite, and zinc, ahead of the 2026 USMCA review. [4]
Fernando Aboitiz heads the Ministry of Economy's Extractive Activities Coordination Unit. He told El Financiero the government inherited 176 stalled mining projects in October 2024. As of that December 2025 report, officials had cleared 110 of those cases, leaving 66 pending, with normalization targeted for mid-2026. [5]
As of June 30, 2026, a separate, more recent count of individual environmental procedures, a different measure than the project-level figures above, showed 83.8% cleared, including approvals for Los Ricos Sur, El Pilar, and Camino Rojo. [6]
Key Facts & Figures
700,000 t
Mexico produced 700,000 tonnes of copper in 2025, the 10th-highest output globally. [7]
$40.871B
Foreign direct investment in Mexico hit a record US$40.871 billion in 2025, up 10.8% from 2024 and the fifth straight year of growth. [8]
2.93%
The sector accounted for 2.93% of national GDP in 2025, employing roughly 400,057 people directly and supporting an estimated 2.4 million indirect jobs. [9]
Mexico produced 700,000 tonnes of copper in 2025, the 10th-highest output globally. [7]
Foreign direct investment in Mexico hit a record US$40.871 billion in 2025, up 10.8% from 2024 and the fifth straight year of growth. [8]
At least eight copper and polymetallic projects, worth an estimated US$5.161 billion combined, are moving forward across the country. [7]
Mining sector investment totaled US$5.063 billion in 2024, up 2.1% from 2023. [8]
Mexico's mining-metallurgical exports climbed nearly 20% in 2025 to US$30.64 billion, producing a US$13.75 billion trade surplus and making mining the country's fifth-largest source of foreign currency once again. [9]
The sector accounted for 2.93% of national GDP in 2025, employing roughly 400,057 people directly and supporting an estimated 2.4 million indirect jobs. [9]
Canada's Trade Commissioner Service counts more than 138 Canadian mining companies active in Mexico, placing the country 7th globally for Canadian-held mining assets abroad. [10]
Mexico's annual copper production has almost tripled between 2010 and 2022.
Mexico hosts the world's 5th largest in situ resources of copper.
Mexico's diversified economy is integrated into neighboring N. American economies through memberships in the USMCA Trade Agreement (formerly NAFTA).
Sinaloa: An Economic Powerhouse
The state of Sinaloa is Mexico's largest exporter of agricultural products and home to the 2nd largest fishing fleet. Its preferential geographic location on Mexico's Pacific coast provides easy access to international markets, e.g., from the port of Topolobampo. Sinaloa's exports to its top destinations, the United States, Canada, and Japan, totaled approximately US$4.19 billion in 2024. [12]
LA ENTRADA AL PACÍFICO CORRIDOR — PORT OF TOPOLOBAMPO, SINALOA
Santo Tomás is located within La Entrada al Pacífico, a multi-modal transport and trade corridor designated under U.S. federal legislation and is also home to the Mexinol project.
Sinaloa is home to Grupo Coppel, a national retail and wholesale chain with over 100,000 employees, and Casa Ley, a leading national grocery retailer.
Sinaloa attracts FDI from major global investors, including TC Energy's US$1.2 billion Topolobampo Pipeline and Proman's (Switzerland) US$1.5 billion investment in an ammonia plant.
Pacífico Mexinol broke ground in Topolobampo in April 2026. The Houston-based developer behind the project, Transition Industries, has IFC backing and has already locked in a long-term natural gas supply deal with CFEnergía along with a methanol offtake agreement with Mitsubishi Gas Chemical. Full construction begins in Q2 2026, with startup targeted for late 2029 or early 2030, when Mexinol is expected to become the world's largest ultra-low carbon chemicals facility. [13]
Additional FDI within Sinaloa includes investments from Delphi Automotive (USA), Sumitomo Contec (Japan), Walbro Engine Management (USA), Hikam (Japan), and InsurTech (Canada).
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These historical resource estimate models are based upon historical resource estimates prepared by John Thornton in 2011. While, in the opinion of Dane A. Bridge, author of the revised NI 43-101 standard technical report, Geology, Mineralization and Exploration of the Santo Tomas Cu-(Mo-Au-Ag) Porphyry Deposit, Sinaloa, Mexico dated April 21, 2020 (the “Report”), reliable estimation practices were used, in order to upgrade or verify the historical estimations, resampling and assay of historical drill samples, twinning of historical drill holes, and a new program of regularly spaced drilling is required. No qualified person has undertaken sufficient work to classify the current mineral resources or mineral reserves upon which these models are based and the Company is not treating the estimates as current estimates of the mineral resources. The Company gives no assurance that either these models or the historical resource estimates upon which they are based are accurate, and does not undertake any obligation to update the models or to release publicly any update or revisions of the resource estimates except as required by applicable securities law. The reader is cautioned not to rely upon these models or the historical resource estimates upon which they are based.
