Thousands of Panamanians marched again on Friday to demand the abrogation of a contract with the Canadian company First Quantum Minerals, which operates the largest copper mine in Central America in Panama.
The agreement, which allows the mining company to operate in Panama for 20 years, has provoked 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 insufficient and see it as a threat to the environment.
Panama’s President Laurentino Cortizo announced a ban on new metals mining concessions on Friday, but maintained the agreement with the Canadian company.
The government has decided to issue a decree “declaring the ban on granting new concessions for metallic minerals throughout the national territory,” Mr. Cortizo announced in a televised speech, without mentioning the controversial contract with First Quantum Minerals.
But his announcement did not succeed in calming the spirits. Even as he spoke, thousands of demonstrators had gathered in the financial center of the capital.
The protest movement has grown in recent days, with road blockades in the capital and other cities, including some blocking the Pan-American Highway that connects the country to the rest of Central America.
Schools remained closed all week and in some areas clashes broke out between stone-throwing demonstrators and police who used gas to disperse them.
This gigantic open-air copper mine, located 240 km from Panama City, generates 4% of the country’s GDP and 75% of its export revenues. As of February 2019, the mine produced approximately 300,000 tonnes of copper concentrate per year and employed more than 8,000 people.