Mexico Has Four of World’s Nine Largest Privately-Owned Mines

Mining is one of Mexico’s sectors that maintained its economic growth. This is because four of the nine largest privately-owned mining projects in the world are in Mexico, a government source said. These projects are key for the country’s production of both precious and industrial minerals.

According to the Ministry of Economy (SE), these four mines have helped the industry not just to avoid shrinking because of COVID-19, but even allowed it to grow. According to data from the Ministry of Economy (SE), the production of the mining industry was worth US$11.5 billion in 2019. In 2021, this figure grew to US$17 billion.

Notably, three of these four projects are developed by Mexican companies like Industrias Peñoles, Fresnillo and Grupo México. The remaining development is owned by Gatos Silver and Dowa Mining. SE clarified that the ranking does not consider mining projects developed in China, a globally leading producer of gold, coal, iron, lead and zinc, among many other resources, and a country famous for its large-scale productive industry projects.

The largest project in Mexico, and the third-largest in the world according to this ranking, is the Buenavista del Cobre mine, which belongs to Grupo México and is located in Cananea, Sonora. The Buenavista mine produced around 327,300 tons of copper in 2021, which makes it the largest copper mine in Mexico, producing 60 percent of the mineral in the country. 

The sixth position belongs to the Capela mine, property of Industrias Peñoles. The mine is located in Guerrero and commenced production in 2020. Extracting primarily silver, it produced 3,173koz of the precious metal in 2021, as well as 19,441oz of gold.

The seventh place is for the Juanicipio gold mine, owned for 56 percent by Fresnillo, while MAG Silver owns 44 percent. The Zacatecas-based project has an estimated production of over 11.7Moz of silver and 43,500oz of gold. Therefore, the mine plays an important role in keeping Mexico among the largest gold producers in the world.

The Cerro Los Gatos mine, owned by Los Gatos Silver and Dowa Mining, is in eighth place. It is the only project owned by a foreign company in SE’s ranking.

According to SE’s ranking, Glencore’s Zhairem mine ranks first place. Tau KenSamruk’s Shalkiya mine is in second place, and both mines are located in Kazakhstan. The Brazil-based, Nexa-owned Aripuana mine is in the fourth position, whereas Heron’s Woolawnd mine in Australia occupies the fifth place. Korea Zinc’s Pachapaqui mine in Peru is in ninth place.

On Apr. 19, 2022, MBN reported that just eight companies carry out 88 percent of Mexico’s gold production. Similar trends were observed in the production of silver, copper and zinc. Grupo México, Fresnillo, Industrias Peñoles, Gatos Silver and Dowa Mining also stood out as key mineral producers.