Canadian miner Sherritt International Corp.’s decision to shut down its nickel operations in Cuba under US duress will weigh heavily on an economy that’s already starved for hard currency and fuel.

In addition to halting production of the battery metal, it means Cuba loses revenue from its share of refining operations in Alberta and a metals-commercialization operation that it ran in partnership with Sherritt out of the Bahamas, according to Omar Everleny Perez, the former director of the Center for Cuban Economic Studies at the University of Havana.