Panama’s Supreme Court on Tuesday declared the awarding of a 20-year concession to a Canadian copper mine unconstitutional.
The awarding of the concession had sparked weeks of protests by environmentalists and others who said the mining activities would damage a forested coastal area and threaten water supplies.
The announcement by the nine-judge court, after four days of deliberations, sparked cheers among protesters waiting outside and waving Panamanian flags.
“This is what we’ve been waiting for,” protester Raisa Banfield said after what she called an agonizing wait.
“The president must suspend operations today. »
There was no immediate comment from Minera Panama, the local subsidiary of Canadian company First Quantum Minerals.
The conflict over the open-cast mine has given rise to some of the largest protests in Panama in recent years, including the blockade of the mine’s power plant.
Protesters also blocked parts of the Pan-American Highway, including a section near the border with Costa Rica. Just before the judgment was announced, they opened the road to allow goods trucks to pass through.
Minera Panama said in a statement earlier this month that small boats had blocked its port in Colon province, preventing supplies from reaching the mine.
Naval police reported that a ship carrying coal decided to turn back due to “the hostility of a group of demonstrators who, from their boats, threw stones and blunt homemade objects” before be dispersed.
The demonstrators, a broad coalition of Panamanians, feared the impact of the mine on nature and in particular on the water supply.
The mine employs thousands of people and represents 3% of Panama’s gross domestic product. In March, Panamanian lawmakers reached an agreement with First Quantum allowing Minera Panama to continue operating the massive copper mine in central Panama for at least 20 more years.
The mine was temporarily closed last year when negotiations between the government and First Quantum broke down over payments demanded by the government.
The contract, definitively approved on October 20, allows the subsidiary to continue to operate the mine in a jungle rich in biodiversity on the Atlantic coast west of the capital for the next 20 years, with the possibility of extending it for 20 additional years if the mine remains in operation.
Since the protests began, the government came close to passing a law that would have terminated the contract, but backtracked during a debate in the National Assembly on November 2. The protesters’ last hope was that Panamanian courts would declare the contract unconstitutional.