A Panama-flagged cargo ship arrives carrying humanitarian aid in Havana, Cuba, on Monday. The country has been facing energy shortages and blackouts.YAMIL LAGE/AFP/Getty Images
Canadian mining company Sherritt International Corp. S-T said on Tuesday that it will not be dissolving its interests in Cuba, reversing an announcement made last week.
On May 15, the company said it was dissolving the Moa Joint Venture it operates with the Cuban state-owned General Nickel Company SA. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the reversal.
The company said in a press release, however, that it was “maintaining its suspension of direct participation in joint venture activities in Cuba,” originally announced on May 7.
After that announcement, Sherritt chief financial officer Yasmin Gabriel resigned.
Under a 1994 agreement, Sherritt and General Nickel Company SA jointly own a nickel and cobalt mine in Cuba and a refinery in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta.
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The May 15 statement said that the company was filing an application with the King’s Court Bench in Alberta to expedite the process of severing its Cuban assets. According to Sherritt, if U.S. sanctions make it so that it “cannot reasonably carry on a material business activity,” it can dissolve the Moa Joint Venture, and the mine will revert to 100 per cent Cuban ownership while the refinery in Alberta will become fully owned by Sherritt.
In its press release Tuesday, the company said the reversal came after “consultation with advisers, stakeholders and relevant governmental authorities, and in light of additional information currently available to the Corporation.”
The press release added that the company was working towards a “value preserving opportunity,” but stressed that there were no guarantees that it would be successful.
It also said that ”unless and until these matters are resolved, Sherritt faces a number of acute operational, financial and legal difficulties including the ability to comply with its debt covenants.”
Sherritt did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication, and calls to a number listed on their website weren’t answered.
After the announcement, Sherritt stock rose 1 cent from Friday to close at 13 cents on Tuesday.
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The company’s May 7 and 15 announcements came after a May 1 executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump that made it easier for the U.S. to impose sanctions on foreign nationals who conduct business in Cuba.
On Monday, the U.S. Department of State released a list of Cuban individuals it was sanctioning pursuant to the executive order, which included Vicente De La O Levy, the country’s Minister of Energy and Mines.
The U.S. has enforced a total economic embargo on the Caribbean country since a revolution toppled the regime of Fulgencio Batista and installed a communist system headed by Fidel Castro in 1959.
Tensions have ratcheted up under the Trump administration. Under former Venezuelan President Nicolàs Maduro, the South American country was Cuba’s largest oil supplier. After his ouster in a U.S. operation in January, 2026, energy exports to the island nation stopped. Cuba has been unable to replace it in any meaningful way.
The country has been facing energy shortages and blackouts. Last week, Mr. de la O Levy said that the country had completely exhausted its oil reserves.
Sherritt first began importing nickel from Cuba in 1991 for its refinery in Fort Saskatchewan.
The mining company also operates power-generating facilities in Cuba through a joint venture with government-owned companies.