First Quantum Minerals (TSX: FM) will spend approximately $20 million a month to maintain its idled Cobre Panamá copper mine under a recently approved care and maintenance plan.
Roderick Gutiérrez, president of the Panamanian Mining Chamber, said the cost would be covered by selling copper concentrate stored at the site. The company currently has 121,000 tonnes of concentrate, though some has deteriorated after nearly two years of inactivity. Reprocessing the degraded material may not be economically feasible, Gutiérrez noted in an interview with local media.
The care mine plan includes updated environmental and legal protocols and is expected to take six to twelve months to implement, depending on equipment conditions. Oversight will involve ten government agencies, including Panama’s Ministry of the Environment.
Cobre Panamá, a $10-billion open-pit operation, was shuttered by presidential…
