Cuba's Ministry of Energy and Mines (MINEM) closed the Castellanos-Santa Lucía polymetallic (several-metal) concession fully and temporarily until 30 January 2027, in resolutions published in Gaceta Oficial No. 91 on 2 October1. The same gazette ended seven other mining concessions. Treasury designated Cuba's state nickel-mining monopoly in August.
22OCT
Cuba halts one mine and ends seven more
2 min read
17:12UTC
The Ministry of Energy and Mines closed the Castellanos-Santa Lucía polymetallic concession until 30 January 2027 and ended seven other mining concessions.
PoliticsAssessed
Key takeaway
Cuba closed one mining concession until January 2027 and ended seven others.
Deep Analysis
In plain English
Cuba grants companies concessions: permission to explore for minerals or dig them out in a set area. In a government gazette published on 2 October, Cuba's Ministry of Energy and Mines let a joint venture called Minera del Caribe shut its Castellanos-Santa Lucía mine, which produces several metals, until 30 January 2027. The ministry also cancelled seven smaller concessions, mostly for sand, stone, clay and cement material. At the same time it extended three other concessions and approved a new one for gypsum.
Root Causes
Cuba's mining concessions are granted by ministerial resolution and expire or end by the same route, so the ministry can cull titles without legislation. The seven terminated concessions covered research or extraction of cement material, clay, stone and sand, mostly small construction inputs.
Construction materials depend on fuel for quarrying and transport. The US designation of the Ministry of Construction in August added a sanctions risk to any supplier tied to state building.
What could happen next?
- Risk
If the energy deficit persists past January 2027, the Castellanos closure may be extended or made permanent.
Sources:Directorio Cubano
First Reported In
Update #15 · Cuba opens oilfields, US cuts dollar routes
Directorio Cubano· 22 Oct 2026
Read original →Different Perspectives
UN General Assembly
The Assembly passed last year's resolution against the US embargo by 165 votes to 7, with 12 abstentions, and votes again on 28 October. That count is the baseline against which Havana's lobbying claims and Washington's pressure will be measured.
Mexican Navy (Secretaría de Marina)
A Mexican Navy team inspected Grace at Progreso and found fuel in its ballast tanks, according to the US Coast Guard. The account of Mexico's role comes from Washington; the Mexican government's own position on the stop is not on record in the sources reviewed.
Pedro Monreal, independent Cuban economist
Monreal says the gazette contains no rule for the exchange-house licence ADT 64 received, so nobody knows how a second firm could apply. He says a representative rate would need at least ten houses in five provinces, Havana included.
Prisoners Defenders and OCDH (Madrid-based exile monitors)
Prisoners Defenders counted a record 1,351 political prisoners at the end of September, and OCDH logged at least 344 repressive actions that month. OCDH asked the European Union on 11 September to investigate possible trafficking in Cuba's medical brigade in Italy.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier
Uthmeier announced a no-bond state warrant for Raúl Castro on 19 October over the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shootdown, after reopening the state investigation last year. The four men killed flew for a Miami exile group, and the warrant restricts Castro's travel rather than reaching him in Cuba.
Cuban government (Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla)
Rodríguez said on 21 October that Washington is pressing governments to abstain or leave the hall in the 28 October UN vote and called Florida's Raúl Castro warrant worthless. Havana is presenting its October oil and trade rules as openings and the US measures as an energy blockade.
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