Mining in Coahuila and Saltillo: what is extracted and how much

Coahuila ranked 1st nationally in coal and celestite production in 2023 — preliminary figures — and 2nd in limestone, with 35,599 people employed in the mining-metallurgical sector, per the Servicio Geológico Mexicano's (SGM) Anuario Estadístico de la Minería Mexicana 2023 (2024 edition). Within the state, Saltillo appears as a producer of marble, limestone and stone aggregates.

Key facts

• Coal: 477,904.46 t in 2023, 1st nationally (≈89.9% of national total, calculated from the Anuario).
• Celestite: 66,532.20 t, 1st nationally; limestone: 20,267,730 t, 2nd place.
• Value of Coahuila's concessionable mining production in 2023: 14,933 million pesos, 10th nationally.
• Mining-metallurgical employment in Coahuila in 2023: 35,599 people, 8.54% of the national total.
• Saltillo: producing municipality for marble, limestone and stone aggregates (SGM, pp. 74 and 241).

What is extracted in Coahuila, and where does each mineral rank nationally?

Per preliminary figures in the SGM's 2023 Anuario, Coahuila ranked first nationally in coal, with 477,904.46 tonnes against a national total of 531,904.46 tonnes — roughly 89.9% of the country's coal production, calculated from the Anuario — and also first nationally in celestite, with 66,532.20 tonnes.

The state also ranked 2nd nationally in limestone, with 20,267,730 tonnes, and 3rd in fluorite, with 45,854.45 tonnes. Added to that are 84,565.96 kilograms of silver, 56,380 tonnes of iron and 123.89 tonnes of barite.

These figures are preliminary for 2023, reported in pesos and tonnes by the SGM itself; the 2023 Anuario, 2024 edition, is the most recent official source with a breakdown by state and by mineral. Metallic and non-metallic mining coexist in the state: coal and celestite are extracted as concessionable minerals, while much of the limestone and stone aggregates supply the construction industry.

How much is Coahuila's mining production worth, and how much employment does it generate?

The value of Coahuila's mining production in concessionable minerals was 14,933 million pesos in 2023, the 10th-largest state total, 2.37% of the national figure, per table 6.5 of the SGM's 2023 Anuario. That figure covers only concessionable minerals under the Ley Minera; it does not include stone aggregates for construction, which fall outside that regime.

In employment, the mining-metallurgical sector employed 35,599 people in Coahuila in 2023, 8.54% of the national total of 416,875 people in that sector, per the same Anuario. Nationally, mining contributed 2.7% of GDP in 2023, down 2.0% from the prior year — a figure the SGM reports at the national level, not broken down by state.

What kind of mining is there in Saltillo?

The SGM's 2023 Anuario lists Saltillo as a producing municipality for marble, and also for limestone and stone aggregates, the latter carrying the note "construction mineral (quarries)." That note matters: it separates the extraction of stone and aggregates for construction — under the quarry regime — from the concessioned mining of other minerals in the state, such as coal or celestite.

Per that source, Saltillo's mining profile is marble, limestone and stone aggregates; the state's coal, celestite and fluorite output comes from other municipalities.

For a construction project in Saltillo, that SGM note has a practical consequence: the stone material used on site — gravel, sand, base, ballast — comes from quarries, not concessioned mines, and its regulation runs through state and municipal law, not the federal Ley Minera. The article on what a quarry is and how it is regulated covers that point in more detail.

What about mining in the Región Carbonífera and Sabinas?

The Región Carbonífera of Coahuila, with Sabinas as one of its municipal seats, is historically the state's coal-mining area — the mineral in which Coahuila ranked first nationally in 2023. The SGM's 2023 Anuario reports the coal figure at the state level; separate production figures by municipality of that region are not broken out here because the Anuario does not report them that way.

How much stone aggregate does Coahuila produce, and how does that relate to concessioned mining?

Coahuila produced 11,543,912.97 tonnes of stone aggregates in 2023 — close to 11.5 million tonnes — per the SGM's Anuario. Unlike coal, celestite or fluorite, this material, when destined only for construction, is excluded from the mining concession regime by Article 5 of the Ley Minera, as explained in the article on what mining is.

That distinction is what separates an aggregates company such as Triturados Gramol from a concessioned mining operation: it produces gravel, sand, ballast, base and asphalt surface course, not minerals subject to a concession.

How does Grupo Server help?

Triturados Gramol, a Grupo Server company founded in 2003, produces stone aggregates — gravel, sand, ballast, base and asphalt surface course — with two operating plants, one in Coahuila and one in San Luis Potosí. You can review its product line on the Triturados Gramol page and the rest of the group's construction operation under construction.

For aggregate supply in Saltillo or the region, the contact form connects directly with Grupo Server's offices in Saltillo, Coahuila.