LatinNews Daily - 08 April 2026

*Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals (FQM), the owner of Panama’s largest mine Cobre Panamá, which was shuttered in late 2023 following major unrest over a new contract, has announced that Panama’s government has formally approved the removal, processing, and export of stockpiled ore at the mine that was extracted prior to the suspension of operations. According to an FQM statement, “the processing of stockpiled ore is intended to mitigate environmental and operational risks associated with prolonged on-site storage, including the potential for acid rock drainage”. However, it states that this activity “does not constitute a reopening of the mine and will not involve any new drilling, blasting, or reactivation of mining operations”. According to the FQM statement, the processing programme is expected to create more than 1,000 direct jobs and “generate meaningful economic contributions through royalties and local economic activity.” It estimates the total stockpile at approximately 38m tonnes (t) of mineralised ore at varying grades, containing approximately 70,000 t of recoverable copper, and says “the hiring and training of approximately 1,000 additional employees” has begun “to expand the current workforce to 3,000 employees”. With the required capital estimated at approximately US$250m, FQM estimates these “preparation and pre-commissioning works” to take up to three months until the start of stockpile processing. In February international credit ratings agency S&P Global (S&P) revised up its outlook on FQM to positive from negative and affirmed its ‘B’ long-term issuer credit rating on the company, saying that it anticipated that the mine would be re-opened in the second quarter of 2026, with production ramping up by the third quarter of 2026, providing about 120,000 t of copper and 40,000 ounces (oz) of gold in fiscal year 2026.

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