The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday, May 27, edition that First Quantum Minerals, after a bruising fight that forced it to suspend operations earlier this year at its Cobre mine in Panama, signed a new concession agreement in March that increases government revenue by about tenfold. The Globe's Nathan VanderKlippe writes that the terms set a new benchmark for the value a country can extract from a foreign mining company, including a royalty rate that rises with operating margins -- and a floor for government revenues with a $375-million (U.S.) minimum annual contribution. The new agreement promises to shower villages near the mine with millions of dollars a year. If that money arrives -- an open question -- it will constitute an almost unimaginable windfall for remote outposts that in some cases consist of no more than a few dozen homes. On paper, the new terms for Cobre Panama suggest a coming national bonanza. If the new agreement is finalized by the government, half of its additional bounty will go to social security, one-fifth to the country's poorest pensioners and a quarter -- more than $90-million a year -- to the two districts situated closest to the mine. That is nearly $2,000 a person.