PANAMA (AP) – The Panamanian government announced Wednesday that it has reached an agreement with a subsidiary of Canadian First Quantum Minerals Ltd. to continue operating for another 20 years a copper mine considered one of the most important in Latin America and one of the most important in Latin America. more investment in the Central American country.
The agreed contract guarantees “an equitable distribution of royalties and taxes for Panama’s natural resources,” the presidency said in a statement.
He added that Panama expects to achieve a minimum annual revenue of $375 million, about ten times what it received during the previous concession agreed in the late 1990s. The new contract has an option extension for another two decades.
The mining company and the government have been engaged in contentious negotiations for more than a year to agree a new concession and with no agreement on a deadline, Panama ordered the mining company’s operations to close in December while the talks continued.
The agreement “creates the necessary conditions for Minera Panama to continue its operations in a fair and equitable investment environment,” Trade and Industry Minister Federico Alfaro said.
Meanwhile, Tristan Pascall, CEO of First Quantum Minerals Ltd., said in the statement that after a “long and arduous process of talks, the proposed concession agreement lays the foundations for the future of Cobre Panamá. We await looking forward to a long and constructive association with Panama for years to come.”
In addition to additional royalties for Panama, the new contract incorporates greater labor and environmental protections, the government said.
The open pit mine operates in an area of the province of Colón, in the north of the country, and involved an investment of more than 6,000 million dollars. Minera Panamá began exporting concentrated copper in June 2019 and, according to company reports, the value of its overseas sales in 2021 exceeded $2,813 million.