Almaden Minerals Ltd.: Update on Arbitration Procedure with Mexico
Vancouver, British Columbia, July 07, 2025 – Almaden Minerals Ltd. (“Almaden” or “the Company”; TSX: AMM; OTCQB: AAUAF) announces a significant development in its ongoing arbitration proceedings under the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (“CPTPP”) with the United Mexican States (“Mexico”).
A public version of the Memorial document (“Memorial”), filed in March, concerning these international arbitration proceedings (the “Claim”), is available on the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (“ICSID”) website.
Almaden, alongside Almadex Minerals Ltd. (“Almadex”), is pursuing the Claim on behalf of themselves and their Mexican subsidiaries (the “Claimants”). The Claimants originally held 100% of the Ixtaca precious metals project in Mexico (the “Project”), and Almadex possessed a 2.0% NSR royalty on the Project.
Details of the Memorial
The Memorial delineates how Mexico breached its CPTPP obligations by obstructing the development of the Ixtaca project and ultimately terminating the Company’s mineral concessions retroactively and arbitrarily. Specifically, the Memorial argues that Mexico unlawfully expropriated the Claimants’ protected investments without compensation, failed to provide fair and equitable treatment to the investments, and unlawfully discriminated against the Claimants and their investments.
Subsequent to the Claimants’ Memorial filing, Mexico requested a separate phase of proceedings (“Bifurcation”) to consider certain jurisdictional objections. Among other arguments, Mexico claims that the Claimants lack standing to bring the Claim due to specific standard form declarations mandated by Mexican law for all enterprises with foreign investment. Almaden believes that this argument undermines Mexico’s investment treaties’ investor protections.
Almaden regards Mexico’s Bifurcation request as flawed and motivated by a desire to defer its Counter-Memorial and delay resolution. The Claimants have responded to this request and await the arbitration panel’s decision on whether to bifurcate the proceedings, expected later this summer.
Background of the Claim
In April 2015, an ejido community (“Ejido”) filed a lawsuit (“Lawsuit”) against various Mexican entities, claiming unconstitutionality in Mexico’s mineral title system due to a lack of Indigenous consultation. An ejido refers to a communal land tenure system in Mexico.
The Ejido involved is a small mountain village located outside the Project’s “area of influence.” Upon learning about the Lawsuit, Almaden had sought to adjust its mineral title area to address the Ejido’s concerns. However, despite reduction measures confirmed by Mexican authorities, the Ejido’s appeal led courts to mandate retaining the larger title area.
With the Supreme Court of Mexico’s (“SCJN”) 2022 ruling, though confirming mining law’s constitutionality, they concluded that the Claimants’ mineral titles were improperly issued without Indigenous consultation. This led to the suspension of Almaden’s mineral titles in June, 2022.
In 2023, Economy authorities filed a notice aiming to retroactively deny the mineral title applications citing minor technical faults, thereby avoiding Indigenous consultation. This resulted in the cancellation of the mineral rights, reverting them back to the Mexican government, without the promised consultations ever taking place.
Impact and Future Steps
The Claimants assert that Mexico’s actions have resulted in significant harm and breaches of investment protection obligations under the CPTPP. This includes the reassessment of mineral title applications deemed deficient and the delay or refusal by SEMARNAT to issue environmental permits.
The Claimants filed their Request for Arbitration in June 2024, and a three-person arbitration panel has now been formed. With the Memorial filed in March 2025, the Claimants seek damages of US$1.06 billion. This sum may be revised as the Claim proceeds based on market factors.
The legal representatives for this arbitration are Boies, Schiller, Flexner, LLP, and RíosFerrer + Gutiérrez, S.C.
Almaden Minerals Ltd. emphasizes that forward-looking statements in this update reflect current views with regards to future events, stressing the diverse factors and uncertainties that could lead to deviations from projected outcomes.
