Manana’ the rule despite Salinas’ reforms

As President Carlos Salinas de Gortari orchestrates his economic reform program, the image of the lazy Mexican sleeping underneath a cactus plant is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

Inflation is expected to drop this year to 12% from 160%, many corrupt business and labor leaders have been sent to jail, and the Mexican stock market index (the Bolsa index) was up 35% in the first three months of 1992, before stock prices began to cool off.

But the word “Manana” (meaning don’t do today what you can put off until tomorrow) still applies to many aspects of life in Mexico. Newcomers must expect cultural differences in the speed with which things get done. “The bottom line is you have to be patient,” remarked Anne Dattler, an employee with the government-sponsored Mexican Investment Board, which is attempting to bring new business into Mexico.

Her views were echoed by many mining executives interviewed by The Northern Miner during a recent trip to Mexico City, Sonora and Zacatecas. “They lack infrastructure and support for mining in remote areas,” said Dave Collins, mine manager, at Phelps Dodge’s (NYSE) new Santa Gertrudis gold mine in Sonora. A native Peruvian who has worked for Phelps Dodge in the U.S., Collins had to use his own fleet of dozers to make way for the leach pads at Santa Gertrudis because contractors weren’t available.

“Finding experienced metallurgists is difficult, but you can always come up with top quality engineers,” he said.

Carl Hering, Placer Dome’s regional geologist for Mexico and Latin America, says the rules relating to ownership of surface and mineral rights are different from Canada and the U.S. “Mining records aren’t always up to date and you can’t always obtain surface and mineral rights for the areas you want to work in,” he said.

In addition, companies attempting to build mega-projects in Mexico will have to contend with dwindling supplies of energy and water unless alternate sources are developed in the near future.

But mining industry wages of US$300-600 per month are low compared to the U.S. and Canada and Hering expects exploration activity to pick up during the next 2-3 years. “I would say we will see a number of new mines there.”