Excavating copper mine in Panama triggers demonstrations

Between emerald sea and jungled hills, the Cobre Panama copper mine has fueled mass protests across the Central American country, reports Associated Press (AP).

Buried in the rolling hills and dense jungles of Panama's eastern Caribbean Donoso region, the mine is marked by heavy machinery and rubble slicing into the earth, clashing with the vivid blues and green of the vast nature enveloping it. More than a year ago, it became the heart of protests rippling across Panama.

The country-wide protests blocked off roads and fueled shortages in much of the country, prompting Panama's Supreme Court to halt operations.
Now, the new administration is signaling that the mine may roar back to life.

More than a year after Panama's Supreme Court halted operations at a huge copper mine because its government concession was deemed unconstitutional, the country's new administration is signaling a potential restart.

Business groups are lobbying Panama President José Raúl Mulino, who says he'll start discussing the mine's future with his team next week. The mine's owner is conducting media tours and has said it will suspend arbitration, while the coalition of environmental and civic groups that snarled traffic for weeks in 2023 calling for the mine's closure is preparing to hit the streets again.

Mulino has already ordered that the mine's power plant be restarted and that some $250 million worth of copper concentrate sitting at the mine be sold. And on Thursday, he appeared to signal where he was leaning.

Noting the mine's economic impact - it accounted for nearly 5% of Panama gross domestic product the last year it operated - Mulino said: "On what basis can I say, as president of the republic, 'good-bye, to the mine, there won't be a mine because five people who don't pay a payroll don't want a mine?'

In March 2023, Panama's Congress reached an agreement with Canadian mining company First Quantum, allowing its local subsidiary Panama Copper to continue operating the mine for at least 20 more years. The open-pit mine was temporarily closed in 2022 when talks between the government and First Quantum broke down over payments the government wanted.

The contract, given final approval Oct. 20, 2023, allowed the subsidiary to continue operating the mine in a bio-diverse jungle on the Atlantic coast west of the capital for the next 20 years, with the possibility of extending for a further 20 years if the site remained productive.