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Sherritt International Corporation turned to Canadian courts to try to maintain its corporate structure, in a move that reflects the profound impact that sanctions from the Trump administration are having on the mining company most closely tied to the Cuban regime in the last three decades.
The company will present a request this Monday before the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario to obtain two court orders: one that allows its reduced board to continue operating with quorum despite vacancies, and another that extends the deadline for holding its annual shareholders' meeting until no later than September 30, 2026. The hearing is scheduled for next Thursday, May 14.
The governance crisis was triggered on Wednesday when three members of the board — president Brian Imrie, Richard Moat, and Brett Richards — submitted their resignations effective immediately, just hours after the company announced the suspension of its direct participation in all its joint ventures in Cuba and the start of the repatriation of its employees on the island.
The trigger was the Executive Order 14404, signed by Donald Trump on May 1, which expands sanctions against Cuba and introduces secondary sanctions against foreign financial institutions that operate with blocked Cuban entities.
Sherritt clarified that it was not formally designated under that order, but acknowledged that its mere issuance "materially disrupts the corporation's ability to operate normally."
On May 6, Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated under the executive order GAESA, its executive president Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, and Moa Nickel S.A. —the joint venture between Sherritt and the Cuban state— accusing the latter of having "exploited Cuba's natural resources to benefit the regime at the expense of the Cuban people."
Rubio also warned that "new sanctions are expected in the coming days and weeks," a sign that the pressure on the regime has not yet peaked.
The impact on the Cuban dictatorship
Sherritt's exit leaves the regime without its largest foreign direct investor since the early 1990s, with production at the Moa mine reaching 25,240 tons of nickel and 2,728 tons of cobalt in 2025, valued at approximately 490 million dollars in gross annual revenue.
Additionally, the company was involved in electricity generation through Energas S.A., with an installed capacity of 506 megawatts, equivalent to 10-15% of Cuba's national electrical capacity, in a country that is already experiencing blackouts affecting more than 55% of the territory.
The Cuban government has accumulated, if that weren't enough, a debt of at least 344 million dollars with Sherritt itself.
In February, Sherritt had already suspended nickel and cobalt production in Moa due to fuel shortages reported by Cuban authorities, amid an energy crisis exacerbated by over 240 sanctions imposed by the Trump administration since January 2026, which have reduced the island's energy imports by 80-90%.
The publication of the first quarter results for 2026, originally scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday, has been postponed to Thursday, May 15, and will take place without a press conference or online broadcast.
The Fort Saskatchewan refinery in Alberta continues to operate with the available raw material inventory, estimated to last until mid-June 2026, by which time Sherritt will need to make definitive decisions about the future of its operations.
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