the following comment from a SE Arizona mining company illustrates 1 of the reasons why miners choose Mexico etc despite Mexico's own problems-because permitting time for mines is much shorter in Mexico

''Our goals are to drill out this body within a span of 4 years and to bring it into production within 7 years of the start of drilling. This is a very tall order, because the average time to bring an orebody into production now in the USA is 15 years''