“The company has asked for more surface to operate and we have said no,” Laguna said. “They must work with what they have. It is more than enough.”
Laguna added that in negotiations over the new contract her ministry was pushing to install an office at the Cobre Panama mine to monitor its environmental footprint and assure tighter controls.
This followed what she described as failed environmental commitments, including one that called for reforestation.
Laguna said First Quantum had reforested only a small fraction of the required land and noted it had five pending judicial cases centered on environmental concerns.
A spokesperson for First Quantum said the firm agreed to the creation of the on-site office but had no comment on the negotiations over the land for operations.
Panama’s environmental ministry said that, from the $375 million it was requesting First Quantum pay each year, it aimed to use some $11 million on…
