Goodbye Mum, Hello Mexico

When I hugged Mum goodbye as I left for Mexico recently,

“Be safe…” she said with a tremulous voice.

Mexico may be, as President Trump recently said, a “narco trafficking playground” — but it’s also something far more powerful:

The Mother of Money.

Silver: The First Global Currency

The Sumerian silver shekel, at 5,400 years old, is the world’s oldest money.

Four thousand years later, Spain led Europe into Latin America under the banner of religion — seeking wealth and power to fuel its imperial ambitions. Spain overthrew the Aztec Empire in 1521 and the Inca Empire in 1533, seizing immense riches in what is now Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Argentina. Portugal colonised Brazil, exploiting its land and people through sugar plantations and slavery.

“…the first inquiry of the Spaniards, when they arrived upon any unknown coast, used to be, if there was any gold or silver to be found in the neighbourhood.”

— Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776

In 1546, Spain found exactly what it was looking for in the Sierra Madre — the Mother Mountains of Mexico — vast silver deposits that would go on to create the world’s first global currency.

How Silver Rewired the Global Economy

The discovery of silver in Mexico transformed the global economy. Over the next two centuries, Spain mined so much silver from Mexico and Peru that the world’s money supply more than doubled.

The silver funded European wars, drove up prices, and fuelled transatlantic and transpacific trade. Much of it ended up in China, where it became essential for taxation and commerce. Mexico, once a colony, became the financial engine of the Spanish Empire and a key force in the rise of a globalised economy.

Pieces of Eight (8 Reales coins) minted in Mexico became the first truly international currency, accepted across North America, Europe, and Asia.

From the mid-1500s to the early 1800s, Mexican silver defined global money and wealth. Spanish galleons carried tonnes of silver from Acapulco to Manila, and from there on to China, where the Ming and Qing dynasties built their economies on foundations of Mexican silver.

The world’s first global commerce — spanning the Americas, Europe, and Asia — was made possible by Mexican silver.

And since the 1500s, Mexico has remained fundamental to the global silver supply.

Mexico Still Dominates Global Silver

Fresnillo — the £10 billion London Stock Exchange behemoth — is the world’s largest silver producer, extracting 50 million ounces of silver per year, plus an equivalent amount of gold, from its home in Zacatecas, Mexico.

Mexican silver still flows east — to China, for the production of solar panels, EVs, and electronics, and to India, for jewellery and investment.

Today, Mexico remains the most important silver producer in the world, with over 200 million ounces out of 800 million ounces of global production — in a one billion ounce per year market.

Source: The Silver Institute https://silverinstitute.org/

During my trip I recorded this brief history of Mexican silver, for Catt Calls, from the heart of the Sierra Madre or Mother Mountains:

But What About the Narcos?

Mexico shares a 3,000 km border with the United States — the world’s largest market for illegal drugs.

And yet… neither in Mexico City, the world’s joint-largest metropolis, nor in Chihuahua (woof), nor in the Sierra Madre, did we see any gangster action.

Why? It makes sense that the cartels keep to themselves. Most of the well-publicised and tragic violence comes from cartel infighting over market share of the highly lucrative trafficking of drugs, people, and fuel into the U.S.

📸 Mexican soldiers on the road in Chihuahua.

Mining vs. Meth: follow the money

Mexican mining champions like Grupo Mexico and Fresnillo had combined revenues of US$20 billion in 2024, with 30–40% operating margins.

Meanwhile, the Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco New Generation Cartel dominate a $60 billion underground market of cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl — sold into the U.S. at 90%+ margins.

But the real challenge for Mexican miners? Politics.

The Permit Freeze

During his presidency (2018–2024), Andrés Manuel López Obrador (‘AMLO’) froze all new mining permits. He even proposed making open-pit mining illegal in early 2024 (though it was never enacted).

His successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, from the same Morena Party, is seen as a pragmatic technocrat. She has stated her policy is sustainable development — inclusive of mining.

At a June 23rd 2025 meeting with Mexico’s mining industry, universities, and government, President Sheinbaum stated:

“There will be no new concessions — no, no new mining concessions.”

But she added that existing ones would be reviewed for environmental impact.

Green Lights, Not Green Tape?

From my recent meetings and conversations with miners and politicians in Mexico, it’s clear that since taking office in November 2024, the Sheinbaum administration has taken a supportive tone toward sustainable mining — provided there’s social licence and environmental responsibility. Todays Mexican government emphasises supply chain resilience and a strong focus on the energy transition.

Since February 2025, the environmental regulator SEMARNAT has issued over 50 backlogged mining permits. But notably, none for new mines.

Investors will believe Mexico is truly open for business only when it starts issuing permits for new projects — particularly open-pit ones.

I consistently heard in-country that three Canadian-owned mines are expected to be permitted by year-end:

San Nicholas (Agnico Eagle & Teck)
Cordero (Discovery Silver)
Los Ricos (GoGold)

The San Nicolas and Cordero projects are particularly important because of their scale implying billions of dollars of capital investment and jobs for Mexicans. They are also open pits, banned by the former Mexican president.

Diplomacy and Trade

In case you missed it Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met Mexican President Sheinbaum at the G7 Summit on June 17th. The two leaders plan to meet again in Mexico later this year.

Mexico, the U.S., and Canada are all part of the USMCA trade agreement (formerly NAFTA). With the Trump administration’s volatile tariff policy, Canada and Mexico have become natural allies in navigating U.S. trade dynamics.

International investors are watching closely to see whether Sheinbaum will back new silver mines — and move beyond the uncertainty of the AMLO era.

Silver Eggs: Cordero & Copalquin

While in Mexico, we visited two of our Silver Eggs:

Cordero Project (Discovery Silver) and Copalquin Project (Mithril Silver & Gold).

Cordero: sustainable silver

Discovery Silver’s Cordero Project, the worlds largest undeveloped silver reserve, awaits a development permit for which it applied in mid 2023 - the same time as Agnico and Teck applied for a development permit for their San Nicholas copper and zinc project.

If there’s a model mine for sustainable mining aligned with Sheinbaum’s manifesto — community water reuse, indigenous agriculture, and social licence — Cordero is it.

Here is the City of Parral water treatment plant awaiting Discovery Silver’s capital to recycle the cities waste water for drinking, new agriculture projects for indigenous groups and for the Cordero (silver) Project 40km away 👇

Raymond James analyst Craig Stanley in front of the Parral Water Treatment Plant.

The Mexican town of Parral exists because of silver mining.

The Mayor even invited us gringos to a lamb BBQ at the La Prieta mine museum, where 150 million ounces were mined between 1920–1990.

I asked when Cordero would be permitted. He replied:

“We’re going to Mexico City next week” (to lobby regulators and support the development of the project!)

The Cordero Project will recruit most of its 2400 construction workforce from Parral - and the state of Chihuahua awaits the $4 billion multiplier on the $600 million initial capex to build Cordero.

Cordero and San Nicholas are two out of sixteen federal priority development projects awaiting SEMARNAT processing capacity. The Mexican Economic Ministry has offered to loan personnel to SEMARNAT to speed up development permits.

Asarco and Grupo Mexico produced about 150 million ounces of silver from the La Prieta Mine in Parral between 1920-1990. La Prieta Headfame shown in picture.

I went to Cordero, the worlds most important new silver mine that will soon produce 20 million ounces of silver per year and recorded this for Catt Calls:

Copalquin: The golden silver child

Hot on the trail of Mithril Silver & Gold’s (MTH:ASX, MSG:TSX) emerging high grade gold and silver discovery in Durango, Mexico’s second ranking state for silver production, our intrepid group boarded 3 fixed wing planes and two choppers for the two hour flight into the heart of the Sierra Madre.

You call that a landing strip?!?!

High in the Sierra Madre, Mithril Silver & Gold’s Copalquin Project is producing globally significant intersections:

8 metres @ 80 g/t gold and 705 g/t silver
Aiming to double its 530,000-ounce resource by end-2025

I was impressed - not just by the grades — but by the people.

We believe Mithril has the right people drilling the right rocks.

They’re cashed up (A$22M), burning A$4M/quarter, and have two drill rigs turning with plans to add a third by year-end.

Final Word from the Front Line

Mithril’s Copalquin Project has the right rocks, the right team, and the kind of high-grade hits that don’t lie. It’s not a question of if — it’s when. A globally significant discovery is unfolding.

Discovery Silver and Mithril Silver & Gold have already clocked ~300% returns since I first wrote about them in Silver Eggs, but trust me — these eggs are far from hatched.

The real action is just beginning.

Here’s the final word on Copalquin, shot from the back of a buggy — somewhere deep in the Sierra Madre, chasing the next major discovery

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