MEXICO CITY—Mexico’s president said Wednesday he will create a state-owned company to mine lithium and appeared to suggest he will seek to cancel one of the few existing permits held by a Chinese company. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had said in October that he wants to declare lithium a “strategic mineral” and reserve future exploration and mining to the government. Lithium is a key component of batteries. It had not been clear if he would rely on private companies to do the work, which Mexico has no experience in. But López Obrador said Wednesday that a newly created government company will do the mining and processing. The president also said a private lithium mine in the northern state of Sonora that involves a Chinese company would not be allowed to start production. “What they want to do is to continue looting and that is over. We are going to …