Earlier this month, board members from the Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals assembled in a conference room in Panama with a view of one of their prize assets: a vast, open-pit copper mine, set in the lush green Central American rainforest.
The snag? The Cobre Panamá mine, one of the biggest and most modern of its kind in the world, has been closed since November 2023. It has no immediate prospect of reopening.
The mine’s closure after just four years in production was greeted with jubilation by environmental activists and unions. But it also provided a stark reminder of how difficult it can prove to extract the metals the world needs for the transition to green energy.
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