A Guerrero mining group is forecasting that its operations and the new investment it attracts will generate a 2-billion-peso spillover for the state’s economy this year, a 300% increase on its first year of operations in 2017.
Alfredo Phillips, president of the Clúster Minero de Guerrero (CMG) – a group made up of eight companies – said that the predicted 2-billion-peso (US $103.6-million) injection into businesses in the state will represent growth of 66% on last year’s figures.
Despite security concerns and uncertainty surrounding possible changes to the federal Mining Law, Phillips said that several companies are interested in collaborating with the CMG on a range of new projects in Guerrero.
One set to be undertaken by Energéticos Nieto is the construction of a facility in Iguala with the capacity to store more than 15 million liters of diesel.
Phillips said that Canadian company Leagold Mining sees potential for a new project in the state while Media Luna, a subsidiary of Canada’s Torex Gold Resources, will invest US $600 million on a second Guerrero project.
Torreón-based Minera Capela is starting a project in the municipality of Teloloapan and the Campo Morado project in Arcelia, operated by Canada’s Telson Mining Corporation, continues to forge ahead, he added.
Meanwhile Canadian company Alio Gold is waiting for the right market conditions in order to enter the state.
“Insecurity will always be an issue, you find these situations everywhere, not just in Mexico, but I believe that the environment has improved because, with the collaboration of state and municipal governments as well as federal authorities, we’ve managed to . . . improve conditions,” Phillips said.
He added that communities in the state now have a better understanding of the benefits that the mining sector can bring them.
“The Clúster Minero de Guerrero started two years ago . . . and in the first year we had an economic spillover in the state . . . of 550 million pesos. Last year, [it was] 1.2 billion pesos . . . and this the goal is to have a spillover of at least 2 billion pesos on mining value chains in the state,” Phillips said.
Guerrero is Mexico’s third largest gold producer behind Sonora and Chihuahua, while mining in the state generates 8,000 direct jobs and 40,000 indirect ones.
Source: Milenio (sp)
