As negotiations with the Executive advance, the Company has not stopped processing the stone, which contains copper, gold and silver, approximately 64 million tonnes of material between January and September of this year that produced 260,786 tonnes of copper, 101,000.449 ounces gold and 2.55 million ounces of silver, according to La Prensa newspaper.
He also noted that the company closed the first nine months of the year with revenue of $2,285 million, down 2.0 percent from that recorded in the same period in 2021.
After deducting operating expenses, including the increase in inputs used to operate the plant, the Donoso Mine reported earnings of $876 million, down 21 percent from the $1,113 million compared to the first nine months of 2021.
Analysts reminded that the agreement reached in early 2022 between the government and Minera Panama stipulates that once the contract is signed, royalties will be paid on the basis of profit and not gross sales.
However, until the new contract is approved by the National Assembly (Parliament) and endorsed by the Comptroller General of the Republic, the company will continue to pay the state two percent royalties on gross sales.
By the end of 2021, the state had received $59.8 million in royalties, and since negotiations concluded earlier in the year, the amount received during 2022 has not been disclosed.
Last March, President Laurentino Cortizo reported that 50 percent of the minimum annual income from copper mining in Donoso would go to the Social Security Fund’s (CSS) Disability, Old Age and Death (IVM) program, guaranteeing the pensions of retirees in the country. but if more details to date.
But after the treaty is signed, the road will be longer as it will have to undergo a public consultation and then be sent to the National Assembly, which will not happen until next January when it will return to regular sections.
On the subject, the political analysis magazine El Periódico de Panamá commented that despite the fact that the Supreme Court (SCJ) annulled in 2018 the possibilities of operating and benefiting from this raw material, the mine continues to exploit the natural resources for a value more than $10 million a day.
He also dismissed the fact that some media companies are being paid heavily for commercials while the company has signed the country’s main law firms.
In addition, he denounced complicity with some politicians who do not say anything about such an offense and the exploitation of natural resources.
On the other hand, he pointed out that the nearly $400 million a year reached in negotiations without the CSJ acting as it should will only be granted if the relevant legal contract is approved.
In April this year, the Panama Worth More Without Mining movement challenged violations of this mining company by indiscriminately logging 876 hectares above the permitted surface and halting reforestation of more than 1,300 hectares of endangered forests.
They also cited dumping waste into natural waters without official permits and $11 million in debts to the Department of Environment.
The copper Panama mine in the Donoso district of the Caribbean province of Colón is the country’s largest private investment at $6,700 million and contributes 3.5 percent of gross domestic product and thousands of direct and indirect jobs.
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