Only two points separate Donosco mine negotiators

Spokesmen for the  Panama Government and the Canadian company First Quantum announced that there are only two pending points to reach a consensus on the terms of a contract governing the activity of extracting copper from the mountains of Donoso, in Colón, for the next 20 years.

But neither party has relaxed the measures to put pressure on the other.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (Mici) has not responded to the appeal filed on January 10 by Minera Panamá, a subsidiary of First Quantum, against the order to put the Cobre Panamá project into maintenance and care. The Mici has a period of two months to resolve t the appeal.

On the other hand, the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) has not made a decision on the appeals filed by the company to lift the restriction on the operation of the port of Punta Rincón. On January 26, the AMP ordered the stoppage of the port operation, determining that the company did not have the certification of the scales that are used to determine the exact amount of the material exported.

Tristán Pascall, CEO of First Quantum, announced that on February 20 the mine will run out of storage space, causing the cessation of operations.

While the Government maintains its position of only signing the contract under the terms accepted by the company in January 2022, First Quantum is advancing with the first of the arbitrations that it announced ln December against the Panamanian State, after the Cabinet Council ordered the cessation of the commercial operation of the mine, arguing that it was complying with the ruling issued by the Supreme Court of Justice in 2017, in which it declared the 1997 contract that opened the doors to open-pit mining in Donoso unconstitutional.

Sales and profit
This week it was reported that the Cobre Panama project generated sales of $2.959 billion in 2022 and a gross profit of $1.65 billion.

Since the start of operations in mid-2019, the mine has generated sales of  $8,118 billion.