PANAMA · MINING · EARTHQUAKE RECOVERY
Panama has started a cleanup plan at El Remance, an abandoned gold mine in Veraguas province where the 9 October earthquake set off a landslide, with US$37,930.81 contracted and US$780,000 more under review.
Key Facts
- —What A landslide hit the abandoned El Remance gold mine after the 9 October earthquake.
- —The money US$37,930.81 is contracted, and a US$780,000 water-treatment plan awaits a decision.
- —Soil Both old-tailings samples were over the arsenic limit, and one was also over the mercury limit.
- —Water Metal results exist for only three of ten water points; some drinking sources carried faecal bacteria.
- —People About 146 people live closest to the mine, in La Gorda and El Remance.
- —Power Index Panama ranks 11th of 14 in The Rio Times Latin America Power Index, with 34.2 points (October 2026 edition).
Panama’s Ministry of Environment (MiAmbiente) has begun a cleanup plan at the El Remance mine, an abandoned gold mine in Veraguas province, after the earthquake of Friday, 9 October 2026 (magnitude 7.7 by US Geological Survey measurement) set off a landslide there. The ministry announced the plan on Friday, 23 October, with a first contract of US$37,930.81 and a US$780,000 water-treatment proposal still under review.
The case matters to US readers because it shows what an unclosed mine can cost a government, just as Panama weighs the fate of Cobre Panamá, the much larger copper mine run by Canada’s First Quantum Minerals. The ministry calls El Remance a clear example that a mining project must not be abandoned without an orderly closure plan, because the damage can become irreparable over the long term.
In Plain English
- El Remance: an underground gold mine in San Francisco district, Veraguas province, worked from 1903 to 1932 and again from about 1989 to 1999.
- Tailings: the waste mud and rock left after gold is extracted; El Remance has three old tailings dumps near the Veneno creek.
- MiAmbiente and MICI: the environment ministry, led by minister Juan Carlos Navarro, and the commerce and industry ministry, which handles mining.
- Coliforms and E. coli: bacteria that signal faecal contamination of water, usually from sewage, latrines or animal waste.
What the El Remance Mine Cleanup Plan Includes
The first phase is building individual toilets and septic tanks for quake-damaged homes in La Gorda, a community where laboratory tests found high levels of faecal bacteria in untreated water. The contractor, Técnicos en Construcciones Generales S.A., has about 50 working days and a contract of 37,930.81 balboas (about US$37,930.81, because the balboa is exchanged one for one with the US dollar).
The second phase covers containment and cleanup of the landslide area, and the firm Ingeniería Estrella S.A. was due to enter the site on Saturday, 24 October, to collect the data that will define the work. The ministry’s release gives no budget for that phase, so the total cost of the cleanup is not yet set.
In parallel, MiAmbiente is reviewing a proposal from Corporación Quality Services S.A. for four modular water-treatment systems in La Gorda, Mesillas and Pato Alto, priced at US$780,000 with solar power, installation and a year of spare parts. Each unit would treat 1,500 litres (about 400 US gallons) of water an hour, and the ministry has not said when it will decide.
The Plan at a Glance
- Phase 1, under way: toilets and septic tanks in La Gorda for US$37,930.81, about 50 working days.
- Phase 2, starting: a survey of the landslide area to design containment and cleanup; no price published.
- Water systems, under review: four treatment units for US$780,000 across three communities.
- Monitoring: continues with the commerce and health ministries; a second sampling round is under way.
What the Water Tests Found
The ministry’s preliminary report, dated Friday, 23 October, covers 12 monitoring points (seven in surface water, three in drinking-water sources and two in soil) sampled from Sunday, 11 October, to Monday, 19 October. It lists no heavy-metal or arsenic reading above legal limits in water, but its tables show metal results for only three of the ten water points, and the rest were still awaiting laboratory results.
Some creek points near the old workings were slightly acidic, cloudy and high in sulfates, according to the report. It warns that these results cover only the points and dates sampled and do not certify the whole river basin.
On Monday, 19 October, the raw-water intakes for Santiago and San Francisco were within the reference criteria the report evaluated, although most of their metal results were still pending. The health ministry (Minsa) says it has stepped up checks on chlorinators and chlorine tablets, and it added that the water utility IDAAN found no change at the Santa María river intake for Santiago de Veraguas that could be tied directly to the landslide, although some parameters varied.
What the Soil and Bacteria Tests Found
The two soil samples, taken on Wednesday, 14 October, from old tailings dumps, both exceeded the report’s arsenic limit of 4.0 milligrams per kilogram, at 46.3 and 880.7. One of them also exceeded the mercury limit of 1.4, at 6.03, and the report says the metals may come from the local rock as well as from historic mining.
Several drinking-water samples from La Gorda, including a well pump and a gravity-fed tap, carried high total coliforms and E. coli, bacteria that signal faecal contamination. The report says this is not linked to the old mine and points to latrines, human or animal waste and run-off, and its tables show the tap clean but the well pump still positive on Monday, 19 October.
“Although the available results do not allow a generalised effect to be confirmed, or a causal link between all the findings and historic mining activities to be established conclusively, they do identify conditions that require further investigation, inter-agency oversight and restoration measures within the project footprint.”
Ministry of Environment preliminary report on El Remance, 23 October 2026 (translated from Spanish)
How El Remance Became an Abandoned Mine
El Remance worked from 1903 to 1932 under a British firm, the Veraguas Mining Company, and restarted around mid-1989 under Transworld Exploration, which used cyanide to recover gold, the ministry’s report says. Inspectors from the environment agency of the time flagged risks of leaks and overflow from tailings ponds beside the Veneno creek in 1990, but the report finds no record of any sanction or correction.
In October 1994 an inter-agency committee documented a partial slide of solids and liquids from tailings dump number 2 towards the Chitreca creek, and in April 1995 heavy rain damaged dump number 3. The mine was abandoned around 1999, and the report finds no documentation of continuous oversight of the site since 2005.
In 2022 a company called Greenfield Resources Inc. asked to restart operations through a category III environmental impact study, which the ministry rejected because of the conditions at the site, and no mining concession was granted. Residents interviewed for the report reject any restart and demand a full technical closure of the old dumps.
What It Means for You
The ministry’s documents describe a local problem around two small communities, where about 146 people live closest to the mine and 1,306 more live elsewhere in the same township, and they contain no travel warning. Residents interviewed for the report described water that turned yellow, red or cloudy after the quake, and some now collect rain for cooking.
Investors in mining should note how long a closure gap can last, because the report finds no record of continuous oversight since 2005 and the state is now paying for toilets and engineering work, and weighing water systems, 27 years after the mine was abandoned. On Friday, 16 October, MiAmbiente also said it would start restoration work at five other abandoned mining sites around the country.
In a statement dated Saturday, 17 October, the commerce ministry said that technical information shown to its inspectors on Tuesday, 13 October, described a stable tailings facility at Cobre Panamá, with no displacement or pipe leaks. Three things will show how large the El Remance bill becomes: the second sampling round, the decision on the US$780,000 water systems and the landslide survey that the ministry said would begin on Saturday, 24 October.
What Is Not Known
The report says the extent, size and origin of the water-quality changes are still being assessed, and a second sampling round with more points upstream, downstream and at reference sites outside the area is under way. Until those results arrive, the numbers above describe only the 12 points and the dates sampled.
It is not known whether arsenic and mercury from the old tailings have moved into water, sediment or crops, because the report says water and soil results still have to be compared. The ministry also says the metals may partly reflect the natural geology of the gold deposit, so the share that comes from mining is unresolved.
No size or volume has been published for the landslide, and no budget exists for the second phase. The commerce ministry said it would inspect the old mine on Monday, 19 October, but its findings were not in the documents available on Sunday, 25 October.
Both official documents name the same company, Corporación Quality Services, S.A., as the accredited laboratory in the report’s soil table and as the proposer of the US$780,000 water systems. Neither document comments on that overlap, and no decision on the proposal has been announced.
Connected Coverage
Frequently Asked Questions
What is El Remance?
El Remance is an abandoned underground gold mine in San Francisco district, Veraguas province, worked from 1903 to 1932 and again from about 1989 to 1999. Its three tailings dumps were never formally closed.
Is the water near the mine safe to drink?
Not everywhere: a well pump and a tap in La Gorda showed E. coli, which the report says does not come from the old mine. The Santiago and San Francisco raw-water intakes met the criteria evaluated on Monday, 19 October.
Did the quake release arsenic and mercury into the water?
Not shown so far: the few water results available show no arsenic or mercury above limits, and most metal results are pending. Old tailings soil exceeded the arsenic limit in both samples and the mercury limit in one, and the spread is unknown.
How much will the cleanup cost?
So far US$37,930.81 is contracted for toilets and septic tanks, and a US$780,000 water-treatment proposal is under review. The second phase, at the landslide itself, has no published budget.
Does this affect the Cobre Panamá mine?
The ministry’s documents link El Remance to no other mine. The commerce ministry said separately that technical information shown on Tuesday, 13 October, described a stable tailings facility at Cobre Panamá.
Sources: Ministry of Environment, remediation plan, 23 October 2026, Ministry of Environment, preliminary report on El Remance, 23 October 2026, Ministry of Environment, monitoring, 16 October 2026, Ministry of Environment, 2022 rejection of the restart study, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, mine inspections, 17 October 2026, La Prensa, 24 October 2026, La Prensa, health ministry water tests, 23 October 2026, La Estrella de Panamá, 24 October 2026, La Prensa, 16 October 2026, US Geological Survey, magnitude 7.7 event of 9 October 2026, US State Department, Panama investment climate statement (currency). All opened on 25 October 2026. Panamanian ministries give the 9 October quake as magnitude 7.5; the US Geological Survey measured 7.7. No prediction market on this topic was found.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief