Bills Related to Indigenous Communities & Public Consultations This is part 2 in our series of Bills Pending Discussion in Mexico’s Congress that could impact the mining industry. In part 1 we discussed the 5 bills which introduced changes to environmental laws. In this post, we will discuss the 4 bills dealing with indigenous communities and public consultations. Indigenous Rights and Public Consultation Bills 1. Bill Proposing Social & Economic Remediation Senator Manuel Añorve Baños…

Mexico’s Congress concluded its legislative year on April 30th, 2019 with 18 bills proposing changes to several laws, including the Mining Law, which could have an impact in how mining operations do business in the coming years. One bill, sponsored by Baja California’s State Legislature, proposed a review of all current concessions and the need for operational approval from state governments. The bill was presented in both Chambers and was rejected by the Senate,…

The Senate’s Joint Committees on Mining and Regional Development and Legislative Studies rejected the bill proposed by the Baja California State Congress to modify the mining law. The bill, which was presented by the Social Encounter Party and congresswoman Lorenia Lineth Montaño Ruiz, was passed by the Baja California legislature on October 25th, 2018 and turned to the Senate on November 27th, 2018. The bill established that States’ Interests in environmental protection, subterranean or above…

Mexico’s Secretary of Energy published two Official Mexican Standards related to the transportation and labeling of radioactive materials: NOM-009-NUCL-2017, “Determination and application of the transport index (TI) for radioactive materials and the Criticality Safety Index (CSI) for the transport of fissile substances” and NOM-014-NUCL-2017, “Categories of packages, overpacks and cargo containers containing radioactive material: Marking, labeling and signing”. NOM-009-NUCL-2017 NOM-009-NUCL-2017 aims to define the methods to determine the transport index (TI) and Criticality Safety Index…

Mexico’s Supreme Court recently approved judicial precedent in Amparo proceeding 307/2016. In its decision, the Court relied on the precautionary principle to hold that environmental impact assessments are required for any project that may have an adverse environmental impact. This means that any project not backed by an environmental impact evaluation may be subject to judicial review and suspension. The precautionary principle is part of the Rio Declaration, commonly referred to as the Earth Summit,…

Senator Angélica García Arrieta of the MORENA party presented an initiative to change the Mining Law. The initiative, which was presented on November 15th, would require mining projects to be subjected to social impact assessments prior to granting the concession. In our previous post, we recalled that Mexico’s Supreme Court has held in a series of cases the need to consult with indigenous communities before authorizing projects that may pose a health or environmental…