Panama will not offer a new mining contract to Canada’s First Quantum Minerals (TSX: FM), President José Raúl Mulino said, signalling a hard line in the ongoing dispute that has kept the company’s $10 billion Cobre Panamá copper mine shuttered since late 2023.
Speaking at an industry event in Panama City, Mulino said the path forward remained uncertain but noted he remained open to forming an association with First Quantum.
“I can’t tell you yet what path (we) will follow. The only path that won’t exist is a legal contract, and I announce it here that there will be no legal contract for mining,” Mulino said, according to local media.
He stressed that any new legal contract would require approval from the national assembly, which he said is not willing to back such a deal. Instead, he proposed a structure that would make clear the mine belongs to Panama and its people.
Mulino noted that if the decision is made to close the mine permanently, the process could take up to 15 years due to its scale. “Let’s be smart and get the most benefit as Panamanians from a mine we already have,” he said.
The president has not yet met with First Quantum’s executives, though the company dropped its arbitration case against Panama—one of Mulino’s conditions for resuming talks.
Cobre Panamá, Central America’s largest open-pit copper mine, produced over 330,000 tonnes of copper in 2023 before operations were halted.
The mine was on track to become a 100-million-tonne-per-year operation by the end of 2024, which would have placed it among the world’s largest copper producers.
Cobre previously accounted for roughly 5% of Panama’s GDP.