According to Francisco Díaz, leader of this union, after meeting with the Minister of Labor, Doris Zapata, they did not find their demands satisfied as to who would assume the payment of salaries to almost six thousand employees in case of closure of the operations of the copper processing plant in Donoso, province of Colón.

Last week the company confirmed one of the greatest fears among the mine’s operators, and that is: if an agreement is not reached to avoid the implementation of the maintenance and care plan, it will have to discontinue a significant number of jobs.

If the maintenance and care plan is implemented, the export of copper concentrate will be stopped and the operation of the processing plant will be reduced to a minimum.

In this scenario, the company must continue with the environmental actions within the 13,600 hectare concession to avoid accidents within the project and in the surrounding areas.

Díaz indicated that the company has not informed them of the number of contracts that would be reduced, if the order to close commercial operations is executed, since every day there are new elements that modify the status of the conversations being held with the Government to reach an agreement.

The company assures that monthly it pays more than US$22 million in salaries and that it works with more than two thousand local suppliers with a purchase volume of US$550 million during the year 2021.

jrr/arm/mem/ga.