Panama’s new president sets conditions for resuming large copper mine project

The new president of PanamaJosé Raúl Mulino, said Monday that his plan to temporarily reopen a large Canadian-owned copper mine, closed last year amid a legal and social controversy, will depend on the outcome of an environmental study on its status.

Mulino has said that one of the options to deal with the mine is to temporarily open it and then close it, given the high cost of its maintenance and because 120,000 tons of mineral are trapped there.

This is the open-pit Cobre Panamá mine, owned by the Canadian company First Quantum Minerals, a project with a cost of up to US$10 billion and whose operation represented nearly 5% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and 75% of the Central American country’s exports.

The Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) declared the mining concession contract unconstitutional at the end of last November, amid the largest street protests in decades in the country against mining and other national problems.

The deposit began exporting in 2019 and by 2022 it accounted for 2% of global copper production, according to data provided to EFE by the International Copper Study Group (ICSG).

It is currently undergoing maintenance and preservation after the Panamanian Supreme Court ordered its closure. Environmental groups that pushed for its closure accused severe environmental damage in the area.

Mulino He said on Monday that he will order “a strict environmental audit of the mine, with the best international experts, so that the country knows the truth about the state of the site, its surroundings, rivers, fauna and flora, and the possible dangers that its current situation represents to the environment, whether open or closed.”.

“Panama will choose the auditing company, which will not have any cost for the State. The plan to open and close in a definitive, safe and positive way for our country will depend on the result of this environmental study.“, the ruler said.

Mulino made it clear that “We must respect the laws, the ruling of the Supreme Court of Justice, and the request“of the people that mining does not develop in Panama.

But “Under current conditions, this place represents a potential environmental disaster that we must avoid.”. The outgoing government left “leaving us with bombs with their fuses lit. Doing nothing is not a responsible option“, held.

The Government of Laurentino Cortizo (2019-2024) approved last February a strategy for the orderly and definitive closure of the mine, a process with an execution cost of between 7 and 9 years and between 800 and 1,000 million dollars, according to official data.

First Quantum It has already initiated an international arbitration process before a court based in Miami (United States), for US$ 20,000 million according to press data, and has shown its intention to initiate others based on trade agreements with Canada and South Korea.

IT MAY INTEREST YOU