Panama's government on Thursday ordered Canadian miner FirstQuantumMinerals (FM) to suspend operations at its flagship copper mine in the country after it failed to meet a deadline to finalize a deal that would have increased payments from the mine.
FirstQuantumMinerals fell 14.72 percent to C $27.57 at the close of Canadian trading on Thursday.
The Panamanian government has given MineraPanama, majority-owned by FM, until Wednesday to sign the January deal to pay the government $375 million a year from its CobrePanama mine.
After the deadline was missed, the Panamanian government ordered the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to suspend Panama Mining's operations at the mine.
Months of negotiations between FM and the government continued into the early hours of Thursday morning, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said. The miner then sent a new proposal that "fundamentally" changed the economics of the deal, it added.
FM, a Toronto-based mining company, said earlier on Thursday that the deal had not been finalised as it was "unable to reach the necessary legal protections for termination, stabilisation and transitional arrangements".
The company, which earlier said it was open to further dialogue, did not immediately respond to the announcement of the suspension.
Late last year, after Panama's president, LaurentinoCortizo, promised to extract more from the mine for the country, the authorities and the company began negotiations on a new franchise contract.
The mine began operations in 2019 and FM's $6 billion investment in the mine is believed to be the largest private investment in the Central American country, accounting for about 3.5 percent of Panama's gross domestic product.
