Pain of mine closure already felt

For the second time in less than three years, the mills that crush the stone in the Cobre Panama project will reduce their speed to a minimum, after the Ministry of Commerce and Industries published a resolution in the Official Gazette establishing a period of 10 business days for the Minera Panamá company to present a temporary closure plan where the maintenance and care of all areas within the project is guaranteed reports La Prensa.

The closure ordered by the MICI, after the mother company First Quantum did not sign a new contract to continue with the extraction of copper, is similar to the mandate of the Ministry of Health in April 2020, when coronavirus infections increased within the concession of 13 thousand hectares.

But now there is a big difference as it is a legal limbo, with the risks of losses, the challenge of preserving the workforce, and the pressures of reaching an agreement with the Panamanian State to reach a contract that protects the concession.

Daniel Esquivel, an adviser to the office of MICI minister Federico Alfaro Boyd, commented that the plan that the company must present must include the cessation of mineral exports and a minimum operation of the processing plant to avoid the deterioration of the equipment.