PANAMA Law and Practice Contributed by: Roy C Durling, Arias, Fábrega & Fábrega
tration requires their text to be typed on notarial paper (which has a cost of USD8 per page). If an agreement is in English, it will have to be trans - lated into Spanish by an official interpreter. Stamp taxes also apply to agreements express - ing obligations to pay, including security agree - ments, at the rate of USD0.10 for each USD100 or fraction thereof of the face value of the obliga - tion expressed in the document. Amounts paid in notarial paper and in registration duties for the documents that have to be registered are deducted from the applicable stamp tax. Mortgages on mining concessions have to be registered at the Mining Register and, as indi - cated above, require the prior approval of the Ministry of Commerce and Industries. The appli - cable registration duty is USD100 (regardless of the amounts secured by the mortgage). The law is somewhat unclear on whether such mortgag - es must also be registered at the Public Regis - try of Panama (wherein real estate and chattel mortgages are registered) in order to be effective against third parties. If the latter conclusion also applies, the registration duties applicable to real estate mortgages will also apply to mortgages on mining concessions. 6. Mining: Outlook and Trends 6.1 Two-Year Forecast for the Mining Sector With the start of production and export by the Cobre Panama project, mining had become the largest export activity in Panama (in terms of both volume and value). Cobre Panama possibly represented the largest private investment in the history of Panama, second only to the Panama Canal (which was originally funded by the United States and its recent expansion by the Repub -
lic of Panama). In addition, Cobre Panama had become an important contributing factor to the reduction of unemployment in Panama. Unfortunately, due to the events described in the following section, the future of metal mining does not seem promising. Mining Issues to Be Addressed in Panama As a result of two Supreme Court rulings (2017 and 2023) and the enactment of Law 407 of 2023, the future of metal mining in Panama does not look promising. In effect, except for a few concessions, metal mining in Panama has been banned. A decision rendered by the Supreme Court in late 2017, but made public in mid-2018, ruled that the Original Petaquilla Law was unconstitu - tional and declared it to be void in its totality. The ruling of the Supreme Court was in the context of claims filed by environmental NGOs ques - tioning the constitutional validity of the Original Petaquilla Law. Procedural filings were made before the Supreme Court, which suspended the effects of the ruling. However, on 28 June 2021, the Supreme Court dismissed all the filings and confirmed its decision on the unconstitutionality of the Original Petaquilla Law. In August 2023, after almost two years of negotiations, the government presented to the National Assembly a new concession contract to replace the Original Petaquilla Law. On 20 October 2023, the National Assembly approved the contract-law by means of Law 406 of 2023 (“Law 406”). On the same day, the President of the Republic signed the law that approved the contract, which was subsequently published in the Official Gazette.
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