Panama: Canadian mining company warns of possible temporary suspension due to blockades

The Panamanian subsidiary of First Quantum, a Canadian mining company, whose contract with the State to extract copper in an area of ​​abundant biodiversity has sparked weeks of protests in Panamaannounced on Monday that it could suspend its operations because the locks they do not allow them to receive the supplies they need.

“If illegal actions continue to impede supplies needed to operate the power plant, the company will reduce the remaining processing train this week and temporarily suspend production,” said Minera Panamá, a subsidiary of the Canadian First Quantumwhich operates a copper mine in the town of Donoso, in the Caribbean province of Colón.

The company mentioned that due to the blockades at the Punta Rincón international port, the unloading site for materials and supplies used for the operation of the mine, the company has reduced its operations and could run out of supplies for the mine. plant of generation energy in the middle of this week.

The closures and demonstrations follow a month of protests in the capital and the interior to demand the repeal of a contract-law between the State and a subsidiary of the Canadian mining company that allows the company to continue with the extraction and marketing of copper through the next 20 years, extendable for another 20, in an area in the north of the country.

The Canadian mining company reduces its production

The Cobre Panamá mine, the largest open pit mine in Central America, “has reduced its processing capacity” of the mineral before the “illegal blocking” of its port in the framework of the national protests against this enclave, as stated by the concessionaire Minera Panamá, a subsidiary of the Canadian First Quantum Minerals (FQM).