Mining giant back to full production ahead of schedule

Canadian mining giant  First Quantum has returned to full production earlier than expected at the Cobre Panamá project in the Donoso mountains, Colón province.

In July, Minera Panamá, a subsidiary of First Quantum, received an OK from the Ministry of Health (Minsa) to resume operations in the project after the suspension of work was ordered lin  April after an outbreak of coronavirus detected among workers.

The company had predicted full production at the end of August, but the milestone was reached at the beginning of the month and currently maintains 2,000 permanent workers working on the project, and another 1,100 in the isolation mandated for personnel leaving or entering. the mine.

Francisco Díaz, general secretary of the Union of Minera  Workers of said that no positive case has been registered within the mine since May.

In order to comply with the isolation measures suggested by the health authorities, in the 4 camps located within the project, it is prohibited for two workers to remain in one room simultaneously. To comply with this protocol, workers are scheduled for different shifts.

The dining rooms are closed, and the food is prepared for  take away

More than 200 workers tested positive for the respiratory disease between March and May; five died.

Spokesmen for Minera Panama reported that “Cobre Panamá invests more than $6 million in prevention protocols, which includes paid preventive isolation,  to keep the mine 100% free of Covid-19 and achieve the reactivation of 3,100 contracts. On October 8 the mine completed five months without Covid-19 cases ”.

The union secretary said t that the company’s objective is to reach a workforce of 3,500 active workers in the project.

Currently, the workers who enter the mine work four weeks in a row and have a 14-day rest period, of which seven are within the isolation bubble that the company maintains in hotels located in the province of Coclé.

Since its reactivation, the mining company has dispatched 41 vessels that set sail from the Punta Rincón International Port, located in the project. 60% of the material extracted from Donoso has ended up in China, while the remaining 40% has been distributed in refineries in Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, India, Spain and Germany.

In addition to copper, gold, silver, and molybdenum are being extracted from the Donoso mountains.

Before the pandemic, First Quantum had estimated that its 13,000-hectare concession in Panama would produce between 285,000 and 310,000 tons of copper concentrate, but an update of its operations worldwide indicated that now the most optimistic projection is that the mine will reach between 180, 200 tons at the end of 2020.