Panama Ley 407 — Indefinite moratorium on metallic mining concessions nationwide

Mechanism

Ley 407 was passed by the Asamblea Nacional under an expedited third-debate procedure following 13 days of nationwide public protests triggered by Parliament's ratification of the Minera Panamá S.A. concession contract (Law 406 of 20 October 2023). Three operative articles establish the moratorium:

1. Concession ban (Art. 1): Declares an indefinite moratorium on the granting of concessions for exploration, extraction, transportation, and benefit of metallic minerals throughout Panamanian territory, invoking the precautionary principle embedded in Panama's environmental constitutional framework.

2. MICI prohibition (Art. 2): Orders the Ministerio de Comercio e Industrias to flatly reject all new applications for metallic-mining concessions from the date of enactment — with no discretionary review, no time limit, and no sunset clause.

3. Pending-application rejection (Art. 3): Extends the mandate to all concession applications currently in process, terminating them without reaching a merits decision.

The law operates at the horizontal concession-licensing layer: it does not cancel existing concessions or contracts (that work was done by the Supreme Court's November 2023 Sentencia on Law 406), but prevents the State from granting any new metallic-mining rights for an indefinite period. The absence of a sunset clause or periodic-review mechanism is the defining structural feature: the moratorium cannot expire administratively — it requires a new act of Parliament to lift.

Relationship to the CSJ Sentencia (sister filing)

Ley 407 predates the Corte Suprema's ruling by 24 days. The two instruments are architecturally complementary but legally independent:

The net effect: no existing contract survives (CSJ) and no new one can be issued (Ley 407).

Downstream implications

• Cobre Panamá (~350,000 t/yr Cu): Already in care-and-maintenance (C&M) since

November 2023; Ley 407 removes any legislative pathway to reopening without a new parliamentary act, reinforcing First Quantum's force-majeure and denial-of-justice claims in ICSID arbitration.

• Korea Resources / COFINPRO arbitration: Korea Resources (KORES), co-financier of

the Cobre Panamá project via COFINPRO, has parallel ICSID claims; Ley 407 forms part of the legislative record establishing State intent.

• Concession pipeline: Any junior or mid-tier miner with a pending Panamanian

metallic-mineral concession application had its application voided on 4 November 2023 by operation of Art. 3 — no appeal mechanism on the merits.

• Jadarite/copper supply: Together with the Chilean CODELCO lithium-strategy tightening

and the DRC cobalt-quota system, Panama's exit from large-scale copper mining removes a ~1% global supply node with no near-term replacement; incrementally bullish for copper spot and long-duration copper-miner equity.

Open questions

• Whether a future Asamblea Nacional can lift Ley 407 via simple majority or whether

the precautionary-principle constitutional hook requires a supermajority or referendum.

• Outcome of the two ICSID arbitration proceedings (First Quantum and KORES/COFINPRO);

any settlement or award may include a concession-reopening condition that interacts with Ley 407.

• The November 2025 general elections and incoming Mulino administration's public

statements on mining; no legislative initiative to repeal Ley 407 has been tabled as of the filing date.