��������apk

A joint venture between Canada’s First Quantum Minerals (TSX: FM) and the Panamanian government may offer a swift and practical solution to the dispute that has kept the Cobre Panama copper mine shut since November 2023, analysts suggest.

Ana Juarez, CTA Environmental Consultant president, said Panamanians are only now beginning to grasp both the economic fallout of the suspension and the benefits the project had brought — benefits, she said, that were not fully recognized at the time.

Cobre Panama, Central America’s largest open-pit copper mine, produced 330,863 tonnes of copper in 2023 before the government ordered to shut it down. It would’ve become a 100 million tonnes a year operation in 2024, placing it near the top of the world’s copper throughput ranking. 

Speaking to , Juarez pointed to international examples of successful government-industry partnership, such as Barrick’s Reko Diq copper and gold project in Pakistan and El Salvador’s revamped mining law, both of which include government equity stakes. These models, she said, help foster a broader sense of public benefit and ownership.

Public shifts

Public opinion in Panama appears to be shifting, which would help a potential partnership between the company and the country’s government. A from April 1 to 14 found that 70% of respondents believe the mine benefits the country’s economy. When asked directly about reopening the mine, 45% supported restarting operations, 35% opposed it, and 20% were undecided.

Regarding the conditions for resuming operations, 40% of those surveyed wanted a better deal for Panama, 30% called for transparency in how revenues are used, and 20% emphasized the need for environmental safeguards. On the question of national sovereignty and government negotiations, 45% expressed neutrality, 30% approval, and 25% disapproval.

In a public relations push, First Quantum opened the mine to visitors in late March as part of its #CobreConnecta campaign aimed at building support for a restart. But President Jose Raul Mulino swiftly halted the tours, saying the company had not consulted the government and that no meaningful progress had been made toward resolving the dispute. He stressed that First Quantum should not give the impression the site is operational.

“Thousands of Panamanians have now seen the project up close and thousands more have been exposed to Cobre Panama through the #CobreConnecta program,” says ��������apk’s Frik Els in a report from the site.

Els also questioned whether First Quantum was at fault for the shutdown.

“The closure of Cobre Panama must rank near the top of policy failures and political self-harm — particularly in a country that can so ill afford it,” he said.

“Cobre Panama was the lightning rod for discontented citizens.”