recover silver ores from vein and manto type deposits. Mexico City is the political, financial, and trade center of the nation. This city, therefore, would be the logical location for Utah's Administrative Headquarters for any mineral enterprise undertaken in Mexico. Summary About 30 years ago, the Mexican government embarked on an aggressive program to systematically industrialize the nation's economy. The purpose, of course, was to in-crease GNP and decrease the country's heavy dependence on agriculture. Accordingly, emphasis was concentrated on developing the basic sectors of the economy transpor-tation, energy, petroleum and natural gas, iron and steelmaking, petrochemicals, tourism, and manufacturing in general. To finance this program, long-term foreign loans and credits were arranged between the Mexican Government and international banking groups under favorable terms. Over the 1960-70 period, the program was extremely successful, and Mexico succeeded in achieving and maintaining one of the world's highest rates of economic growth. The fol-lowing indicators attest to this record: Mexico's GDP, at current prices, was US$30 billion in 1969 and US$ 34 billion in 1970 Real GDP (at constant 1960 prices) doubled from approximately $12 billion in 1960 to $24 billion in 1970, reflecting a 7 percent annual growth rate. Money in circulation has approximately tripled that is, from 9 billions pesos to about 27 billion pesos over the 10-year period while inflation has grown at less than 3 percent annually. Installed generating capacity has risen from 3 million kw to more than 8 million kw. Similarly, petroleum production has increased from 297,000 bbl. to more than 500,000 bbl. daily over the same period. Iron and steel production has risen from 2.3 million to 4.6 million tons per year. Cement production has increased from 3 million barrels to 6.7 million barrels per year. Foreign expenditures on tourism over the 1960-70 period amounted to approxi-mately $550 million annually. The creation of an industrial base through government decree and protectionism has produced a number of economic and social distortions one of the sectors most affected has been mining. Mining During the past 30 years, the contribution of mining to the total productivity of the nation has declined steadily from 4 percent of GDP in 1940 to 3.2 percent in 1950, 1.5 percent in 1960, and only 1.0 percent in 1970. Taking 1950 as the base year, the Mining-Metallurgical Industry Index was 132 in 1960, 133 in 1965, and 170 in 1969. The present contribution to GDP by product sector is shown in Table 1. These data indicate the minor role that mining plays in the Mexican economy compared with commerce, manufacturing, petroleum production, and agriculture. In terms of U.S. dol-lars, mining contributed only about $300 million in metals and minerals to the economy in 1970. 4