Twelve former Cuban officials, including some high-ranking government employees, have been jailed for corruption in their involvement with a nickel mining company.

According to the Communist Party newspaper Granma, the defendants committed their crimes under an expansion project at Moa nickel mine’s Pedro Soto Alba processing plant.

The prison terms range from four to 12 years.

The dozen defendants worked for the ministry of basic industry, state-run nickel producing company Cubaniquel, and Empresa Moa Nickel SA.

Alfredo Zayas, who led Cubaniquel and served as a deputy minister from 2004 to 2007, was given the longest sentence of 12 years. Former deputy minister Ricardo Gonzalez, who chaired the board of directors, was sentenced to ten years. Antonio Orizon de los Reyes, deputy minister from 1980 to 1999 and who was on the project’s committee, was given the next longest term of eight-years. The remaining defendants were jailed between four and seven years.

The convicted were found guilty by a court in Holguin of corruption during the awarding of contracts and implementation of the project to expand the Moa nickel and cobalt mine. Moa is jointly owned by Cuban and Canadian mining company Sherritt International Corp.

The court took into account “the gravity of these acts and their harmful consequences in one of the strategic activities for the nation’s economy and the conduct of the accused, characterized by the loss of ethical values and deception,” the bulletin read.

Nickel production is one of Cuba’s main sources of foreign income. In April a senior government official said the mineral accounted for 30 per cent of exports in 2011. According to the Canadian Press, with this figure nickel revenues would be put at US$1.8bn for the year based on overall export figures.

President Raúl Castro has repeatedly spoken out about corruption since his inauguration in 2008. He has said that corruption posses the most serious threat to his country’s socialist system.

Cuban president Raúl Castro announced yesterday that he would impose a restructuring of economic ministries in order to make the area “more rational and reduce costs.”

According to the state’s official newspaper Granma, the changes are meant to “gradually reduce the number of bodies, allowing the country to have more integrated structures whose composition ensures an efficient operation, grater rationality and reducing unnecessary expenses.” The news came following a council meeting of the ministers, headed by the president.

The meeting focused on reviving the Ministry of Basic Industry (MINBAS), which had been abolished by Castro in 1967. Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara led its predecessor, the Ministry of Industries, from 1962 to 1965.

The president has given word that it will combine the portfolios of the light iron and steel industries with the chemical industries. The leader of the new MINBAS has not yet been announced.

All of the industries in MINBAS are considered vital to the state’s economy, and include oil and gas, the production of nickel (the main export), generation and distribution of electricity, production of salt for human consumption, fertilisers, paints, plastics, tires and other rubber products, mineral water, paper, cellulose, glass and cement.

Granma reported that the aim is to “address the problems identified in each of these” ministries, “while advancing the separation of state and corporate functions.”

President Castro said these changes must go “step by step.”