Sherritt International Corporation has turned to the Canadian courts in an effort to maintain its corporate framework, highlighting the significant impact of the Trump administration’s sanctions on the mining company, which has been closely linked to the Cuban regime for the past three decades.
This Monday, the company will file a request with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to secure two judicial orders: one to allow its reduced board of directors to continue operations with a quorum despite vacancies, and another to extend the deadline for holding its annual shareholders’ meeting to no later than September 30, 2026. The hearing is scheduled for Thursday, May 14.
The governance crisis erupted on Wednesday when three board members—Chairman Brian Imrie, Richard Moat, and Brett Richards—resigned with immediate effect, just hours after the company announced it was halting its direct involvement in all joint ventures in Cuba and beginning to repatriate its employees from the island.
The catalyst was Executive Order 14404, signed by Donald Trump on May 1, which expands sanctions against Cuba and introduces secondary sanctions against foreign financial institutions dealing with blocked Cuban entities.
While Sherritt clarified it was not formally designated under this order, it acknowledged that its issuance “materially alters the corporation’s ability to operate normally.”
On May 6, Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated GAESA, its executive president Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, and Moa Nickel S.A.—the joint venture between Sherritt and the Cuban state—under the executive order, accusing the latter of “exploiting Cuba’s natural resources to benefit the regime at the expense of the Cuban people.”
Rubio also warned that “additional sanctions are expected in the coming days and weeks,” signaling that the pressure on the regime has not yet peaked.
The Impact on the Cuban Regime
Sherritt’s exit leaves the regime without its largest direct foreign 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 in gross annual revenue.
Additionally, the company was involved in electricity generation through Energas S.A., with an installed capacity of about 506 megawatts, equating to 10-15% of Cuba’s national electrical capacity, in a country already experiencing blackouts affecting over 55% of its territory.
HAVANA TIMES – Canadian mining company Sherritt International announced this Thursday, May 7, 2026, the immediate suspension of its direct participation in the joint ventures operating in Cuba, amid the new sanctions offensive driven by the Trump Administration. The company also confirmed the immediate resignation of three members of its board of directors — Brian Imrie, Richard Moat, and Brett Richards — following the signing of a US Executive Order issued on May 1 that expands restrictions against businesses linked to Cuba.
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stationed in Canada. The decision marks one of the most severe business blows suffered by Havana in recent years within the strategic nickel and cobalt sector.
The company maintained key operations in Moa, Holguin, through the joint venture Moa Nickel S.A., considered one of the Cuban regime’s main sources of foreign currency. However, for years Sherritt had been warning about the growing financial and operational risks of working on the island. In May 2025, the company reported losses of 40.6 million dollars in the first quarter and directly pointed to Cuba’s economic crisis as one of the central causes of the downturn.
The deterioration of the island’s electrical system has been another determining factor. Nickel production in 2024 reached only 83.3% of the planned target due to constant blackouts, fuel shortages, and industrial problems. According to the company’s financial reports, the power outages reduced the operating capacity of the plants and also affected cobalt extraction, a mineral Cuba uses to pay part of its debt to the Canadian company.
Havana (AFP) – The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on a Cuban military conglomerate that controls nearly 40 percent of the island’s economy, as well as a Canadian mining company, as part of a mounting pressure campaign.
Issued on: 07/05/2026 – 21:29
Sherritt’s operations or other business activities.”
In mid-February, the company had already announced the suspension of its operations in Cuba due to the oil embargo imposed by the United States on the island.
Trump has mused about taking over arch-foe Cuba, which has been under a US embargo almost continuously since the 1959 communist revolution of Fidel Castro.
In January, he halted oil shipments from Cuba’s main supplier Venezuela and threatened other countries with tariffs if they sought to make up the shortfall.
Since then he has allowed only one Russian oil tanker through.
Three UN special experts said jointly Thursday that the fuel blockade amounted to “energy starvation,” and had “grave consequences” for human rights and development.
Retired, living in the Scottish Borders after living most of my life in cities in England. I can now indulge my interest in all aspects of living close to nature in a wild landscape. I live on what was once the Iapetus Ocean which took millions of years to travel from the Southern Hemisphere to here in the Northern Hemisphere. That set me thinking and questioning and seeking answers.
In 1998 I co-wrote Millennium Countdown (US)/ A Business Guide to the Year 2000 (UK) see https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9780749427917
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