You are Mateo Valdivia-Iturralde, 54, newly appointed CEO of Cerro Salinas Mining SAPI de CV, a Mexico–Canadian copper-silver JV (Pemco México 51% / Maple-Ridge Canada 49%) operating a US$ 1.4B mine 14 km from the comunidad agraria of San Juan de los Olmos in Zacatecas. Six weeks into the role, an Hijos de la Sierra de Olmos blockade has halted truck access for 19 days. The board wants a stakeholder strategy by next Wednesday.
The situation
Cerro Salinas began commercial production in 2022. Concession permits were granted in 2018 under the Peña Nieto administration and have been informally questioned by the López-Obrador / Sheinbaum-era Secretaría de Medio Ambiente (SEMARNAT). The mine accounts for ~6% of México's silver production. Project economics need the operating-license review (due in Q3 2027) renewed to clear the 15-year hurdle.
San Juan de los Olmos is a 1,400-person Náhua-affinity comunidad agraria with collective ejido title under Article 27. The 2018 community consultation followed Convention 169 ILO procedurally but is now publicly contested as deficient. The blockade is led by Doña Lucía Pérez-Maldonado (62, comisariada ejidal) and supported by the Frente Zacatecano por la Defensa del Territorio (NGO) and quietly by the state government. The federal Subsecretaría de Minería has stayed neutral. The Chinese JV partner (38% of project debt) wants the situation resolved before its own annual disclosure window.