Panama: FQM wants to proceed with the elimination of 7,000 jobs

Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals on Thursday requested a green light from Panamanian authorities to proceed with the suspension of the contracts of some 7,000 workers at Central America’s largest open-pit copper mine, just 24 hours after the state contract renewing its concession it was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

FQM justified this request citing the fact that “road blockades” recently forced it to “temporarily suspend production” at the mine.

Because of the work stoppage, the company has asked the labor ministry to allow the “suspension of its contractual obligations to approximately 7,000 workers,” in other words the suspension of salary payments, FQM said in a press release.

Trade unions called on the ministry not to accept the request.

Panama’s parliament’s approval in October of a deal renewing the state’s contract with FQM to operate the giant mine sparked the biggest protests since the fall of former dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega in 1989, as its terms and consequences were characterized as burdensome for the environment.

On Tuesday, Panama’s Supreme Court ruled the law awarding the state contract “unconstitutional.” President Laurentino Cortisso, who has been criticized for his “inaction” amid protests and road blockades, pledged an “orderly and safe” process to close the facility.

The giant open-pit mine, 240 kilometers from the capital, produces some 300,000 tonnes of copper a year, or 75% of the amount of that metal exported by Panama, contributing about 5% of GDP.

Trade and Industry Minister Federico Alfaro Boyd, who had primary responsibility for negotiations with the Canadian company, tendered his resignation on Thursday, warning that the Supreme Court’s decision would likely have “serious consequences for the country”.

FQM, which invested more than $10 billion in the project, assured that the mine would create 50,000 jobs, while pointing out that the amount it would pay to state coffers ($375 million a year) was ten times what it had previously predicted. contract, of 1997.