Panama recommends negotiating with First Quantum over Cobre Panama mine

A Panamanian ministerial committee has recommended that the government of President José Raúl Mulino negotiate with First Quantum Minerals to restart the Cobre Panama mine, Bloomberg Línea reported on October 2, 2026, with the aim of financing an orderly closure in the future.

A partial or temporary reopening would allow the mine to resume operations under a new agreement that rules out any possibility of an extension and resolves pending international arbitration proceedings, while also requiring closure at no cost to the state, according to the final report presented on Tuesday.

The deposit has been idle since late 2023, when the Supreme Court ruled its operating contract unconstitutional. The prospect of a possible restart caused the company's shares to fall by as much as 37%, the outlet reported, before partially recovering in international markets.

Cobre Panama accounted for around 1.5% of global mining supply before it was halted, after producing 330,000 metric tons of copper in 2022, a significant volume for a global market with constrained supply.

Image: First Quantum Minerals · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons