Thousands of Panamanians demonstrated again on Friday to demand the cancellation of a contract with Canadian company First Quantum Minerals, which operates Central America’s largest copper mine in Panama.
The agreement, which allows the mining company to operate in Panama for 20 years, has sparked a large protest movement for a week. An unusual phenomenon in this country of 4.2 million inhabitants.
Opponents of the contract consider the company’s contributions to the state to be insufficient and see this as a danger to the environment.
Panamanian President Laurentino Cortizo announced a ban on new metal mining concessions on Friday, but stuck to the agreement with the Canadian company.
The government has decided to issue a decree “prohibiting the granting of new concessions for metal minerals throughout the national territory,” Cortizo announced in a televised address, without mentioning the controversial contract with First Quantum Minerals.
But his announcement did not calm the mood. Even as he spoke, thousands of demonstrators had gathered in the capital’s financial center.
The protest movement has grown in recent days, with road blockades in the capital and other cities, including some on the Pan-American Highway that connects the country to the rest of Central America.
Schools remained closed throughout the week and in some areas there were clashes between protesters who threw stones and police who used gas to disperse them.
Located 240 km from Panama City, this gigantic open-air copper mine generates 4% of the country’s GDP and 75% of its export revenue. As of February 2019, the mine was producing approximately 300,000 tons of copper concentrate per year and employing more than 8,000 people.