Panama Tried to Close a Hated Mine. Not So Fast, Said Foreign Investors.

24 MINS AGO

Little-known legal system “elevates the rights of corporations over those of sovereign governments.”
CHRISTOPHER POLLON



This story was originally published by Canada’s National Observer and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.


The battle between a Canadian mining company and Panama over one of the richest copper-gold mines in the Americas is headed to international arbitration—exposing Canada’s double standard when it comes to promoting free trade in the Global South.

Late in 2023, the Supreme Court of Panama unanimously ruled that the agreement to mine Cobre Panamá, controlled by Toronto’s First Quantum Minerals, was unconstitutional. Beset by a generational, popular backlash against the mine, the government of Laurentino Cortizo accepted the court decision and the legislature banned new mining.

Not everyone celebrated. Cobre Panamá provides about five percent of GDP for this tiny nation of just over four million, and supplies thousands of jobs. The open pit mine, set amid the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor that connects wildlife across Central America and southern Mexico, is also an important source of copper needed in vast quantities to realize the clean-energy transition. Before he resigned in the wake of the court ruling, Panama’s Trade minister Frederico Alfaro predicted the decision would reap economic chaos, unemployment, and not least, an onslaught of “international claims from investors.”

The latter is now in play. First Quantum, the main investor in the mine, announced it intends to take Panama to international arbitration for alleged breach of the Free Trade agreement finalized by Canada’s Harper government in 2013. Its Panamanian subsidiary has launched separate arbitration over the alleged failure to honor the 2023 concession agreement (approved by Panama in October, and ruled unconstitutional in November). At least three additional mining investor suits against Panama, including one by Toronto-based Franco-Nevada, have also suddenly emerged.

More:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/01/canada-mining-arbitration-isds-sovereignty/