Mexico amends mining fund rules

Mexico amended rules governing the distribution of mining royalty proceeds to local social infrastructure projects.

The changes, detailed in a filing on the federal gazette website, include scrapping the requirement to conduct cost-benefit analyses of the projects.

A requirement to establish coordinating agreements in the request and delivery of resources was also dropped.

The amendments are aimed at speeding up the allocation of resources from Mexico’s mining fund to infrastructure projects, in order to deliver benefits to local communities more quickly, the filing said.

The mining fund distributes part of the proceeds from the country’s 7.5% mining royalty and 0.5% special mining tax.

All changes come into force on July 9.