Court Hands DynaResource a Due Process Win on Sinaloa Concessions

A Mexican federal district court granted DynaResource de México constitutional protection over eight San José de Gracia concessions in Sinaloa, finding the company was never formally served notice of the proceedings behind their apparent cancellation and ordering authorities to restart notification. The ruling is procedural, remains open to appeal, and does not settle whether the titles stand. It arrives as Mexico enforces the 2023 Mining Law's expanded cancellation grounds, having recovered more than 1,200 concessions in February 2026, raising tenure risk for operators, foreign investors and project developers.

A Mexican federal district court has granted constitutional protection to DynaResource de México over eight mining concessions attached to the San José de Gracia gold operation in Sinaloa, ruling that the company was never properly served notice of the administrative proceedings that led to their apparent cancellation.

DynaResource, disclosed the decision on Aug, 5. The court found that its Mexican subsidiary, DynaMéxico, learned of the cancellations through a posting on the Ministry of Economy's website rather than through formal notification, and that this deprived the company of any opportunity to answer the case against it. The court ordered the authorities to restart the notification process in line with statutory requirements before advancing any further administrative step.

The titles covered by the ruling include San Sebastián, San José, Piedras de Lumbre Uno, Piedras de Lumbre Dos, La Nueva Esperanza and Nuevo Rosario.

A Procedural Reset, Not a Verdict

The judgment does not resolve the underlying administrative question of whether the concessions should stand. It restores DynaMéxico's procedural position and obliges the authorities to meet constitutional notice requirements before acting again. The company filed the amparo on July 18, 2025, responding to an inactivity claim lodged against the eight titles.

Nor is the outcome settled. The ruling remains open to appeal, and the responding authorities may seek review. DynaResource said it would keep monitoring the process alongside its legal advisers and report material developments as they occur.

Rohan Hazelton, President and CEO, DynaResource, framed the decision as "an important procedural milestone in protecting the Company's legal rights" in Mexico, while noting that the judgment is not final. He said the company would keep defending its position while concentrating on operational improvements at San José de Gracia.

Testing the Cancellation Wave

The case lands in the middle of the most aggressive concession enforcement campaign Mexico has run in decades. Federal authorities recovered more than 1,200 concessions in February 2026 across six states on fiscal and reporting non-compliance grounds, 713 of them inside protected natural areas. The 2023 reform to the Mining Law formalized and expanded the grounds for cancellation, and the Ministry of Economy has been applying them systematically rather than case by case.

That campaign has real legal teeth, which is precisely why the procedural route matters. Under Mexican mining law, failure to pay duties across two consecutive fiscal years or to file required activity reports can void a title regardless of how much capital sits in the ground. Joel González, Senior Partner, ALN Abogados, has warned MBN readers that a lost concession now leads to "a reinstatement process that is, under current conditions, virtually impossible." When recovery through the administrative channel is effectively closed, the constitutional one becomes the only door left.

Practitioners have been mapping that door for months. Santiago Suárez Sevilla, Partner, Servicios Legales Mineros, set out the legal risks and remedies available to holders facing cancellation in an analysis for MBN in March, covering the Federal Administrative Procedure Law, recourse before the Federal Administrative Justice Court, and amparo proceedings. Due process and defective notification sit at the center of that toolkit. The DynaResource ruling is an early indication that federal judges are willing to apply it.

For foreign-capital holders, the stakes extend past the domestic courts. Where administrative remedies fail, treaty arbitration follows: Cadence Minerals has already formalized an ICSID claim against Mexico, and Mexico spent years defending the Vulcan Materials case before prevailing on most counts in July.

An Operating Mine, Not a Dormant File

The inactivity framing sits awkwardly against DynaResource's numbers. San José de Gracia is producing. The company reported 1Q26 revenue of US$18 million, up 31% year on year, with net income of US$2.5 million and a sixth consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA. Its 2025 technical report defined proven and probable reserves of roughly 250,000 gold oz across a district that has historically yielded more than a million.

The eight disputed titles are a subset of a larger package, DynaResource holds 34 concessions covering some 4,399ha at San José de Gracia, but the district's exploration upside depends on contiguous ground, and uncertainty over any part of it complicates drilling plans and financing alike.

The Wider Freeze

None of this resolves quickly, because the framework itself is unfinished. The regulation implementing the 2023 reform remains unpublished, leaving operators working under the previous rules, and new concession grants stay frozen. The Ministry of Economy simplified 42 administrative procedures for extractive activities in May, a genuine reduction in holding costs that leaves the structural constraints untouched, 66 stalled projects still awaiting resolution among them.

Against that backdrop, a ruling on notification procedure is a narrow win. It is also, for now, one of the few available.