Canadian mining company promotes voluntary retirement of its collaborators in Panama

The Canadian company First Quantum Minerals (FQM) reported this Monday that it opened “a voluntary retirement program for the “collaborators” of the great copper mine that explodes in Panamaafter the Supreme Court of Justice of that Central American country declared unconstitutional the law contract that renewed a mining concession.

FQM detailed in a statement that it signed a “agreement with the majority union, Utramipa, to open a special voluntary retirement program for those employees who wish to request it”which “includes the payment of the money that is legally owed to them.”

However, the company noted that “reserves the right to accept workers’ requests by mutual agreement, since some of the jobs will still be necessary for the care and conservation phase (non-operational) of the mine.”

Thus, “The voluntary program will not be offered to all employees.”

The mine, called Cobre Panamá, provides more than 40,000 direct and indirect jobs throughout the country and has more than 7,300 employees, the majority Panamanian, according to data from the mining company.

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In the statement, FQM pointed out that “Given the publication of the ruling of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) on the unconstitutionality of Law 406 of 2023, which prevents the operations of Cobre Panamá, the situation of the collaborators has changed and new questions have arisen, which require clarification by the Government.”

And he added that “These issues, along with others that are key to environmental safety and site protection, remain unanswered and the company urges the Government to open a dialogue on the transition plan.”

The Panamanian Supreme Court announced on November 28 that the contract law between Mining Panamaa subsidiary of FQM, and the State was “unconstitutional” by violating 25 articles of the Magna Carta, putting an almost immediate end to the intense protests that semi-paralyzed the country for more than a month.

The ruling of unconstitutionality was published last Saturday in the Official Gazette (bulletin), which represents a transcendental step for the process of closing the mine, according to the Panamanian president said the same day that the Supreme Court’s decision was announced.

The law contract renewed the concession for 20 renewable years with the company to exploit the Cobre Panama mine, an investment of around US$ 10,000 million, according to the company that exports minerals, especially to the Chinese market.

The mine was built in the heart of the Central American Biological Corridor, causing irreparable damage to the ecosystem, according to environmental groups that have been fighting against the enclave for years, and it is the only exploitation of this mineral in the Central American country.

In 2022 it was ranked as the fourteenth largest copper mine in the world in production, and in the first 9 months of 2023 it produced around 268,000 tons of copper contained in concentrates, representing 2% of global production, according to data from the International Copper Study Group (ICSG).

FQM and its subsidiary Minera Panamá SA also reported last week that they initiated a process before the International Court of Arbitration, after the declaration of unconstitutionality.

The former Minister of Commerce and Industries Federico Alfaro, who resigned from his position and was in charge of the negotiation process with the mine, said months ago that Panama was exposed to lawsuits for up to US$ 100,000 million given the mining conflicta figure that local analysts have reduced to between 15,000 and US$ 18,000 million and even less.