Vulcan Materials Can Appeal Mining Compensation in Playa del Carmen, Sheinbaum Says

Mexico City — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Vulcan Materials can still challenge a court ruling that set compensation between $15 million and $17 million in the limestone mining case in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo.

The area will remain a protected natural zone, Sheinbaum said, and if the company appeals the approved ruling, authorities will have to wait.

“We continue talking with Vulcan,” she said. “They ask to extract the material, and we want the site remediated. At the same time, we want the port to be adapted for other purposes because it is such an important port and can be brought under the federal framework for private use. That is what we are discussing, and we want remediation to happen.”

Sheinbaum noted that judges ruled the compensation Vulcan sought from the Mexican state was excessive and set it at about 1 percent of what the company had requested. Vulcan can still appeal that decision.

Vulcan holds a port concession, a type of concession that is no longer granted, Sheinbaum said. The concession was used only to extract rock material from the mine, and negotiations are ongoing.

Asked about another site in Quintana Roo where Governor Mara Lezama is promoting a “well-being hub” to U.S. investors, Sheinbaum said the proposed location has not been approved. The governor is proposing other sites, she added, because “the jungle cannot become a financial center.”

The president also acknowledged that regulations for the Mining Law reforms are still pending, nearly three years after the reforms were published in Mexico’s Official Gazette in May 2023.