Panama’s proposed framework for Cobre Panamá envisages approximately 25 years of renewed operations before active closure begins, according to a timeline contained in the government commission’s final report.
The report, delivered to President José Raúl Mulino on September 30, recommends formal negotiations with First Quantum Minerals over a new agreement that would restart the mine and use revenue from the site to finance its eventual closure.
A graphic in the report maps an initial 25-year period described as “operation with progressive closure.” It is followed by eight years of active closure, taking the process to year 33, and 30 years of post-closure monitoring. Final custody and handover would occur after year 63, while the document says tailings facilities must be planned on a century-long scale.
The timetable is not an approved operating term. Elsewhere, the commission states that it has not fixed dates for future activity and that the precise duration, ownership structure, fiscal regime and legal arrangements would be determined through negotiations.
Nevertheless, the timeline clarifies what “orderly closure” could mean in practice. The report describes progressive closure as rehabilitating individual areas while the site remains active and says closure should become part of the business rather than simply follow the end of production.
The proposed agreement would prohibit expansion of the mine’s territorial footprint, establish a final closure date without extensions and create a funded closure reserve. The commission also recommends ending pending international arbitration cases and avoiding the concession and contract-law structures invalidated by Panama’s Supreme Court in 2023.
Mulino has not approved negotiations or authorized new extraction. He said he would study the recommendations with his Cabinet and legal advisers before announcing a decision.
Environmental organizations that helped lead the 2023 protests have consistently opposed reopening Cobre Panamá under a new commercial arrangement. Their established position is that discussions should concern a safe and permanent closure, although a formal response to the new commission report had not been located by Thursday morning.
The central debate is therefore no longer simply whether the mine requires a technically managed closure. It is whether financing that process justifies approximately 25 additional years of operations at a project whose previous contract was declared unconstitutional.
Sources: Full Commission Report, Reuters
