The Ventolin, The best-known brand name of the drug used to treat asthma attacks, has its roots in the arid soil of San Luis Potosí. A mine located in this state in northern Mexico concentrates 20% of the world’s fluorite reserves. What are initially pink-brown tennis ball-sized rocks are transformed into an essential gas to make inhalers used by patients with respiratory diseases, the group most vulnerable to Covid-19. 80% of the total of these devices, estimates Orbia, the company that owns the mine, uses the fluorite produced there. In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, the Mexican government decree suspending all “non-essential” activities for a month has left the operations of this plant uncertain and threatens to abruptly interrupt the global supply chain.

The San Luis mine is a rocky hill dotted with bushes. Under ground, it has about 15 kilometers of tunnels that go down to a depth of 360 meters. It is the starting point. There, the staff blows up the rock and transports it to a kind of crusher that breaks the crop into pieces about six centimeters in diameter. Of the approximately 6,000 tons of ore mined per day, a significant portion is sent to a plant in Matamoros, near the border with the United States, for conversion to hydrofluoric acid.

The next stop is another factory in the State of Louisiana, in the United States, that transforms the material into refrigerant gas. From there, it is transported to the United Kingdom where it is purified until reaching medical standards. The finished product is then sold to inhaler manufacturers worldwide. The 8,000 tons of gas the company produces annually is enough for 400 million inhalers, according to its estimates. Its fluorine business reports sales of approximately $ 800 million a year.

The gears of this complex multinational chain are now at risk. Mexico declared a health emergency at the end of March and decreed the suspension of “non-essential” activities until at least April 30. The health sector, as well as the agri-food and oil sectors, among others, were exempt. This was not the case with mining, with a few exceptions: the coal mines that supply the Federal Electricity Commission and the metallurgical companies that supply one of the Administration’s priority projects, including the construction of the Dos Bocas refinery or the Maya Train.

But the San Luis plant is in limbo. It is a mine and, therefore, “non-essential”. Produces an input for sanitary material and could therefore be exempt. In a letter sent to the authorities, to which EL PAÍS has had access, the company cites the suspension decree to justify its continuity. The official document allows “the manufacture of supplies, medical equipment and technologies for health care,” a category that the company considers applicable to its operations. Orbia’s CEO, Daniel Martínez-Valle, attributes the confusion to the ambiguity of the decree. “What worries us is that the government treats us like a mine and that we have to close unless the authorities evaluate case by case if we are exempt,” he maintains.

The letter is accompanied by written requests from clients whose supply depends on the fluorite produced in San Luis Potosí. Among them is India’s Cipla, the second largest manufacturer of inhalers in the world, and Britain’s Glaxo, producer of the famous Ventolin. Both consider the maintenance of mine operations “critical”. Due to the concentration of fluorite exploitation – 60% in China, another 20% in the Mexican plant – the global chain is not very flexible and manufacturers have very little margin to cover a gap of the size that would be the temporary closure .

“Without the mineral, the medical supply chain is dead,” says Sameer Bharadwaj, the president of Koura, the Orbia branch that deals with the fluorite business. “When a plant in the chain is qualified, you cannot change the source. You can’t go to China, buy gas and send it to the UK. ” Bharadwaj adds one more element to the mix: an increase of at least 10% in orders. “Many of our customers are out of stock and we are receiving more orders because they are anticipating increased demand for Covid-19,” he says by phone from the Boston office.

The Administration’s cacophony in the crusade against the virus has complicated communication. The General Health Council that issued the suspension decree is chaired by the Secretary of Health, but it was the Ministry of Foreign Relations who read the document before the cameras. For the past two weeks, Orbia has called and written to various Secretariats to clarify their situation without obtaining an official response. The company has also contacted the Embassies of the United States, France and the United Kingdom in Mexico to try to open a communication channel.

This newspaper has contacted the Secretaries of Health and Economy. The first has redirected the query to the second. A spokesman for the Economy assures, in turn, that Health officials are “the only ones who can make interpretations” of the decree. In any case, the spokesperson points out that the document “does not establish any permit / exemption mechanism” and that “unless the mention of the sector in the Agreements published by Salud is express, it cannot be said that any company or sector is automatically included on the essential activities list. “

Pending the authorities to pronounce on the specific case, the mine has continued to operate. However, if the closure is confirmed during the emergency month, the company estimates that about 30 million inhalers would be discontinued, at a time when the group most affected by Covid-19 were people who had previously suffered from respiratory diseases. If closed, production would take a week to restart and stabilize operation throughout the supply chain.