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Sherritt International Corporation, the Canadian mining company with over three decades of presence in Cuba, suspended its direct participation in all its joint ventures on the island this Thursday and began the immediate repatriation of its expatriate employees, in direct response to the new Executive Order signed by President Donald Trump on May 1.
The decision deprives the regime of its largest foreign mining partner and between 10% and 15% of its independent electricity generation capacity, a blow that, according to the agency EFE, adds to an unprecedented spiral of economic decline.
According to a report from Bloomberg, three members of the board of directors have resigned effective immediately: president Brian Imrie, Richard Moat, and Brett Richards.
The new Executive Order by Trump, signed on May 1, invokes the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and introduces secondary sanctions against foreign financial institutions that engage with blocked Cuban entities, which was crucial for Sherritt, whose business model relies on access to international banking.
Days before the announcement, Sherritt had already issued a corporate alert indicating that it was "consulting with its advisors and stakeholders to assess the potential implications of the Executive Order and is considering the next steps regarding the Corporation's interests in Cuba."
The departure is not surprising: in February, Sherritt had already suspended the production of nickel and cobalt at its Moa mine in Holguín, due to a lack of fuel reported by the Cuban authorities themselves.
Sherritt's story in Cuba began in 1991 when it started acquiring nickel concentrate from the Moa mine for its refinery in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta.
In 1994, it formalized a 50/50 joint venture with the Cuban state-owned company General Nickel Company S.A., and in 1998, it expanded its presence by acquiring a stake in telecommunications and creating Energas S.A., which operates 506 megawatts of electrical capacity.
In 1996, Sherritt was the first company targeted by the Helms-Burton Act: its executives received exclusion letters barring them from entering the United States for operating on properties expropriated by Cuba, a prohibition that remains in effect to this day.
Nickel production fell from 34,876 tons in 2021 to 25,240 in 2025, and the Cuban state has accumulated a debt of at least 344 million dollars with the company.
The presence of Sherritt has also faced ongoing criticism from human rights organizations: the business model of joint ventures implies that the mining company pays the Cuban state in foreign currency, while workers receive minimal salaries in pesos equivalent to only a few dollars a month, without independent unions.
In this context, the Cuban-Canadian Coalition called in March for the government of Mark Carney to close the Cuban embassy in Ottawa and reduce diplomatic presence in Havana, amid growing criticism of Canada's financial support for the regime, which exceeds 60 million Canadian dollars in recent years.
Since January 2026, the Trump administration has imposed over 240 sanctions against the Cuban regime, reducing energy imports to the island by 80-90% and worsening blackouts that affect more than 55% of the national territory, while the projected economic contraction for Cuba in 2026 is 7.2%, according to the Intelligence Unit of The Economist.
The Fort Saskatchewan refinery continues to operate with raw material inventory estimated to last until mid-June, by which time Sherritt will need to decide on the definitive future of its Cuban operations.
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