Federal Law of Transparency and Public Information Access

In 2016, the General Congress of the United Mexican States approved the Federal Law of Transparency and Public Information Access. The last amendment of this law was made on 20 May 2021.

This federal law aims to guarantee the right of access to public information possessed by any authority, entity, body, and agency of the legislative, executive and judicial branches, autonomous bodies, political parties, trusts, and public funds, as well as by any individual, legal entity or union that receives and exercises federal public resources or performs acts of authority.

This law also aims to make public management transparent through: the dissemination of timely, verifiable, intelligible, relevant, and comprehensive information; promoting citizens' accountability; strengthening citizens' scrutiny of the substantive activities of regulated entities; and promoting and fostering a culture of transparency and access to public information.

Regarding the mining industry, this law establishes transparency obligations that must be observed by the actors involved in the sector. Article 68. VIII, letter d) mandates the publication of the information related to:

1. The country’s geological, geophysical, geochemical data and mineral deposits;
2. The geographical coordinates of the concession with boundaries, directions, and distances;
3. The regions and zones assigned for the exploration and exploitation of minerals;
4. The bases and rules that have been used to award the concessions and assignments;
5. The register of mining concessions;
6. The general numbers of concession minerals’ volume and value; mining production by entity and municipality, mining-metallurgical production by the form of presentation, coal production and participation in the value of production by entity, and
7. The reports of the inspection visits including, at least, the concession title’s information, the date of the visit, the holder of the concession, and the resolution of the visit.

The failure to fulfil these obligations may be sanctioned with a fine imposed after an administrative process. 

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