"Panama will allow controversial mine to export already mined copper to fund maintenance", 30 May 2025

...Panama will allow a controversial mine that was closed after months of protests to export more than 120,000 tons of already mined copper concentrate to pay the costs of maintaining the inactive mine site, government officials announced Friday.

Opposition to the massive copper mine led to some of Panama’s most widespread protests in recent years before the country’s Supreme Court rejected a deal that allowed a Canadian company to operate it.

Toronto-based First Quantum Minerals said Friday that exporting the material that’s sitting at the site will fund maintenance and environmental protection measures...

“The purpose is to avoid, above all else, environmental damage,” Trade and Industry Minister Julio Moltó said Friday. He emphasized that the mine was not reopening, but said that the plan would ensure the site remained safe...

The deal faced opposition from those who believed Panama wasn’t getting as much as it should and from environmentalists and Indigenous groups who raised concerns about the mine’s impact...