Panama’s Cobre Panamá report recommends talks with Canadian owner First Quantum Minerals about a limited restart, but only to raise funds for the mine’s orderly closure. It rules out an extension. Any agreement must set a fixed final-closure date, pay for irreversible damage and end the arbitration cases against Panama. No restart has been approved.
Three ministers delivered the report to President José Raúl Mulino at the presidential palace in Panama City on 30 September 2026. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MICI) published all 35 pages online. The commission sets six criteria and makes 17 recommendations, laying out conditions for a possible deal rather than authorizing one.
Conditions for a Restart
The commission says the mine could operate again only to finance its shutdown. Its footprint must not expand; instead, it must shrink in stages, with dated milestones for each part of the site. Any agreement must identify, cost and pay for irreversible damage.
The report says a deal can’t take the form of a concession or a contract-law, which it describes as the type of contract the Supreme Court struck down. Law 407 of 2023 bars new mining concessions in Panama. A published legal opinion must show that the proposed agreement avoids flaws the court identified.
The commission also calls for a portion of state income from the site to go automatically to an environmental fund run by the Environment Ministry. Its 17th recommendation makes the end of all arbitration cases a mandatory condition of any agreement.
First Quantum and the project’s financial partners began international arbitration cases after the November 2023 ruling. Their claims total at least US$27 billion at their minimum amounts, about 30% of Panama’s GDP, as calculated by En Segundos. Panama hasn’t accepted the claims as a debt and says it will defend itself. No tribunal had ruled on the claims’ merits.
A First Quantum announcement dated 31 March 2025 said the company had withdrawn one case at the International Chamber of Commerce and suspended another under the Canada-Panama free trade agreement. The report requires all cases to end before any agreement can proceed.
Costs, Jobs and Local Services
MICI estimated in March 2024 that closure would cost US$800 million to US$1 billion over seven to nine years. Subsequent upkeep, at US$15 million to US$20 million a month, would add US$1.8 billion to US$2.4 billion. Without a deal, the commission estimates total costs of US$2.6 billion to US$3.4 billion over 17 to 19 years, equal to as much as 9.7% of Panama’s 2026 state budget.
“The site pays for its own closure, or there is no deal,” said Economy and Finance Minister Felipe Chapman. Panama’s currency, the balboa, trades at par with the U.S. dollar.
The commission says each day without a decision costs Panama an average of US$6.85 million in export earnings and about US$1.28 million in tax revenue. The 2023 shutdown cost more than 6,000 direct jobs and about 30,000 indirect jobs, according to the report. The current phase, processing ore extracted before the shutdown, has created 2,300 direct jobs and is funded by the site, not taxpayers. Exports of 121,000 tonnes of stored copper concentrate earned the state US$30 million in royalties.
Closure takes decades of engineering work. The tailings dam stores mining waste. It has 164 instruments under constant monitoring. The report also calls for an immediate programme of water, sanitation, health and electricity for nearby communities in Donoso, the district in Colón province where the mine is located.
First Quantum said it would engage “constructively and in good faith” toward a legal framework aligned with Panama’s constitution and awaited government guidance. Mulino accepted the six criteria as non-negotiable. He said he’d study the remaining material with his cabinet and lawyers before announcing a decision. He hasn’t given a date. The report sets no date for future activity at the site and approves no contract or payment. Weeks of street protests preceded the 2023 court ruling that ended the previous contract.