MEXICO MINING DESTINATION

The country ranks as the world’s ninth largest mining producer and the fourth in Latin America. Mexico is currently the world’s largest producer of silver and bismuth. It is the world’s fifth largest producer of lead, sixth largest of zinc, ninth of gold and 10th of copper. According to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), in 2010 Mexico produced 79.37 tons of gold (27% more than in 2009), 4.41 billion tons of silver, 270 billion tons of copper, 192 billion tons of lead and almost 14 billion tons of zinc. In 2010, the Mexican Mining Chamber (Camimex ) reported a record high of 11.98 billion USD in production value, leading the sector to surpass tourism among the country’s leading industries. That year, Mexico exported a total of 15.47 billion USD; 94.2% of that value was generated by the exports of metallic minerals, while non metallic minerals accounted for 5.8% of the total value of the sector’s exports. Gold accounted for 37.2% of the total value of Mexican exports, silver for 16.9% and copper for 13.1%. In terms of employment, Mexico’s mining industry employed over 280,000 people by the end of 2010. It is estimated that the sector is responsible for more than 1.5 million indirect jobs in the country. As a matter of fact, mining was one of the first Mexican industrial sectors to show signs of job recovery after the 2009 economic downturn, adding more than 14,200 new jobs during the last year, mostly in the extraction and processing of metal ores.

Source: ProMexico