The president of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, stated this Thursday that he aims to make the 'relevant announcements' in the first months of 2026 regarding the future of a $10 billion copper mine that was shut down by court order two years ago, which resulted in the loss of approximately 37,000 direct and indirect jobs in the country.
'The mine is being considered very responsibly by my government to make the relevant announcements... I trust that within the first quarter of next year,' Mulino said during his weekly press conference when speaking about his administration's efforts to combat the 'high rate' of unemployment, which stood at 9.5% according to October 2024 data.
The head of state emphasized that Panama is 'experiencing the unemployment generated' by the closure of the Cobre Panamá mine, operated by Minera Panamá, a subsidiary of Canadian First Quantum Minerals, because 'that 5% of the Gross Domestic Product' that its activity represented 'is not a fiction written on a board'.
The open-pit Cobre Panamá mine, which produced 2% of the world's mineral in 2022, represented 7,000 direct jobs and nearly 30,000 indirect jobs, according to figures from the Panamanian Executive and the company.
The mine was disabled after the concession contract was declared unconstitutional in November 2023 by the Supreme Court for violating 25 constitutional articles, and amid the largest public protests in Panama in decades that mixed opposition to mining and the government of then-President Laurentino Cortizo (2019-2024 / Democratic Revolutionary Party).
State ownership of the land and its minerals is the base point that First Quantum has accepted at Mulino's request to begin negotiations, on a yet-to-be-announced date, for the possible reopening of Cobre Panamá, the only mine of its kind in the country and the largest open-pit mine in Central America.
First Quantum and Franco Nevada Corp. suspended months ago the international arbitrations filed after the mine's closure, a condition demanded by Mulino.
In total, four international arbitrations were filed against Panama for a total of $29 billion, of which three, amounting to $27 billion, are suspended and one, for $2 billion, 'was definitively withdrawn,' explained in October before a parliamentary committee the head of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (Mici), Julio Moltó.
