Zacatecas, Mexico mining, metals production, aerospace and agricultural manufacturing

Mining and the metallurgical industry have had a long history in the state going back to Spanish exploration of Mexico. Of the states in Mexico’s mining corridor, Zacatecas is the second largest contributor to Mexico’s pressure metal exports behind Sonora.

Of the various minerals and metals mined in the state, zacatecas national contribution is:

• Lead: 58%
• Zinc: 49%
• Silver: 42%
• Gold: 17%
• Copper: 6%
• Additional contributions: mercury, bismuth, antimony, salt, quartz, kaolin, onyx, quarry stone, cadmium, and wollastonite.

Zacatecas has 671 kilometers of railways and one international airport with international non-stop flights to Dallas, Texas, Los Angeles, California, and Chicago, Illinois. Due to its central location, manufacturers have access to both eastern and western Mexican ports connecting cargo transportation with Asian and European ports. Zacatecas also boasts two wind energy farms producing 280MW of power.

Mexico is the world’s largest silver producer with over 78% of all exported precious metals going to the United States. The company, Fresnillo Plc, is the top producer of silver and the second producer of gold in Mexico, operating the largest underground mine in the world for the last 400 years in Zacatecas. The Canadian firm, Gold Corp, operates one of the largest open pit mines in the world in Peñasquito, Zacatecas.

The auto parts manufacturing industry in Zacatecas, Mexico is directly linked with the automotive manufacturing occurring in the surrounding states known as the El Bajio Region of Aguascalientes, Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, Nuevo Leon and Guanajuato. With 14 car assembly plants in these surrounding regions, Zacatecas has become a crucial link in the automotive manufacturing supply chain for central Mexico.

The Triumph Group, Inc. operates at 251,525 square foot facility for aerospace structures fabrication in the city of Calera in Zacatecas. Triumph worked with the government of Zacatecas and the Universidad Tecnológica del Estado de Zacatecas (UTEZ) to develop the Aerospace Center of Zacatecas (CAZ). The purpose of the CAZ is to offer engineering students training in aerospace technologies.