Analysis: Decree adds to doubts about Mexican lithium industry's future

FILE PHOTO: Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador waves during an event to sign a decree for the nationalization of lithium, in Bacadehuachi, state of Sonora, Mexico February 18, 2023. Mexico's Presidency/Handout via REUTERS

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The Mexican government's latest move to tighten control over its potentially lucrative lithium reserves fails to resolve the puzzle of how it can lure needed private industry expertise while keeping most profits for state coffers.

Last Saturday, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador signed his latest presidential decree on lithium, establishing a more than 900-square-mile (235,000 hectare) lithium mining zone in northern Sonora state, stating that existing concessions within it "remain safe."