After a community consultation was ordered as a requirement for the resumption of operations of the San Rafael Mine in Guatemala, the authorities invited nine institutions to participate in the first meeting of the pre-consultation roundtable.
Derived from a protective action filed by the environmental organization Calas, the Constitutional Court (CC) ordered in September 2018, to carry out through the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), a community consultation in the area of operations of the mine, in El Escobal, in the municipality of San Rafael Las Flores, department of Santa Rosa.
Minera Panama filed a protection action, because since April 6 the Ministry of Health ordered the closure of the Donoso mining project, for reporting an outbreak of covid-19 among the company's staff.
The Ministry of Health (Minsal) suspended the activities of the mining project located in the province of Colon, after several workers became infected with covid-19 and two of them died from the virus.
In Panama, the Canadian company First Quantum, owner of the copper mine in the province of Colon, sent the first vessel with 31,200 tons of copper.
The Panamanian mine whose construction began in 2013 and demanded about $6.3 billion investment, expects to export 320 thousand tons of copper concentrate per year, announced from the beginning of the year that in June would begin to export its product.
Canada's First Quantum, owner of the copper mine in the province of Colon, Panama, plans to begin exports by the middle of this year.
The Panamanian mine, whose construction began in 2013 and demanded a $6.3 billion investment, expects to export 320,000 tons of copper concentrated per year.
In Panama, activities related to mining are expected to increase by more than 10% in 2019, a growth that would be mainly due to copper extraction.
According to the Panamanian government, it is estimated that the economic activity of mining and quarrying will increase over 10% in 2019, as copper exports would exceed $2 billion per year.
After several days of negotiation, Cobre Panama company has reached an agreement with the construction workers' union, and they will be able to resume construction work on the project.
Protests by workers at the Cobre Panama project in Colón held since the beginning of the yearhave keptwork on the power line and the 300 MW thermoelectric plantparalyzed for almost three months.
The protests which since the beginning of the year have been held by workers in the Cobre Panama project in Colón have paralyzed work on the power line and the 300 MW thermoelectric plant.
The labor dispute that has prevented the project from progressing arose after both parties, the workers' union and the company Minera Panamá, accused each other of not complying with some points of the agreement made between them in January, with intermediation on the part of the Ministry of Labor.
The Ministry of Energy and Mines has requested that the Executive Power authorize the Canadian company Gold Quest a mining license for the Romero project in San Juan de la Maguana.
Seven years is the estimated useful life of the deposit of gold, silver, copper, zinc and lead, whose present value is around $561 million in accordance with the current prices of metals.
The Varela administration has extended the concession authorizing Minera Panama to extract copper from the mine at Donoso, in the province of Colón for a further 20 years.
The concession granted by the Ministry of Commerce and Industries is for an area of almost 13 thousand hectares, and will be in force until February 28, 2037.
The company has said it is not ruling out expanding the capacity of power generation at the coal-based plant from 300 MW to 600 MW.
The announcement was made by the country manager of the company, Todd Clewett, who confirmed to Capital.com.pa that the land where the plant is located has enough to size double the floor space if required.
The terminal built by the concessionaire Minera Panama, in Punta Rincon, will initially be used for unloading construction materials for the Cobre Panama project.
The port required an investment of $54 million and was built entirely by Minera Panama, concessionaire of the Cobre Panama project , in the district of Donoso, Colon Province.
The project consists of the construction, in the province of Colon, of a processing plant and a mine, from which it is expected that 320 thousand tons a year will be extracted from 2018.
In addition to the processing plant and the mine, a subsidiary of First Quantum Minerals, in charge of the work, is building a power 300 MW plant and and a port area, where the concentrate will be filtered and loaded for transport in ships.
The company Minera Panama has made an agreement to resume construction work at the mine after reaching an agreement with workers over working schedules.
After construction stopped in the Cobre Panama mine project on June 27, due to a labor dispute with workers of the project, the company First Quantum Minerals has said it has reached an agreement to resume work.
First Quantum has announced that operations at the mine in Panama have temporarily stopped due to an illegal work strike by the employees involved in the project.