The end of the hold off seemed very near in January, when First Quantum agreed to up its royalty payments for the giant Cobre Panama copper mine to $375 million a year.
As part of that deal, the miner also accepted to give the government between 12% and 16% of its gross profit, which would replace the previous 2% revenue royalty.
First Quantum agreed as well to start paying 25% corporation tax, from which it was previously exempted until its investments at the mine were recovered.
Ten months later, the new contract has yet to be completed, minister Federico Alfaro said, adding that the government has set Dec. 14, 2022 as the deadline for the parties to finish the deal.
“The future of Cobre Panama is critical to the people of Panama, its workers, and to First Quantum,” he said in a statement. “We had a serious and frank conversation with First Quantum (and) we were very clear about the required path forward for the…
