The Petaquilla Gold S.A. Company, led by the businessman Richard Fifer-Carles, through its department of Environment and Hidrology has promoted the creation of Gardening Clubs in the neighborhoods close to the project, as well as the startup of the Petaquilla Reforests Program which would provide support for families previously surveyed with inputs and purchasing and production.

The department of Hidrology and Environment have an operation center with qualified personnel, specialist in environmental subjects where they plan all the activities that would be developed concerning reforestation and soil recovery , which help to keep a control of the land sedimentation and rainwater sources.

With the purpose of obtaining access to an area in project to be exploited, the Petaquilla Gold, S. A companies headed by businessman Richard Fifer-Carles, and Minera Panama, signed an agreement to build an 8-kilometer road, that will allow to establich communicacion outside the plants of both companies with the objetcive of getting more security.

Roberto Henriquez, engineer of MECO company, in charge of the works, said that it’s about opening up an access, a road that will be built with rocky material, with the purpose of allowing the entrance to an area that is going to be exploited.

“The idea is to make an intersection outside the area that has to do with the plants of the area to help with the security”, explained Henriquez.

The linking road between the two projects – known as by pass – is similar to a path that was built to avoid that trucks and equipment passed through the community of Coclesito, he added.

He stated that this project, whose execution will be subject to the weather’s behavior, will take around 6 to 12 months to be finished.

Henriquez said that due to the characteristics of the area, special equipment will be used to carry out these works, like the trucks off the road.

He added that for these works local work force will be hired; even though, he clarified that in the case of handling the special equipment, these will be operated by the personnel that have already been hired by the company in the city of Panama.

“In regard to the investment, we have the equipment, it is very expensive because they are special equipment“, emphasized Henriquez, who said it was still premature to talk about the costs of the project.

The Petaquilla Gold, S.A. company, that uses cutting-edge technology in its production process, and with well-known international standards of the world-wide mining industry, had a turnover of 67 million dollars last year, becoming the first export item during year 2010.

The projections for this year reveal that the mining company will have a turnover of around 75 to 90 million dollars exporting gold.

A positive impression was created from the appearance of the President of the Fundación Castilla del Oro, the Duke of Veragua, Cristobal Colon de Carvajal, before the Tourism Commission of The Association Panamanian Entrepreneur Executives (APEDE), in which he exposed to a distinguished audience the work and projects carried out in rural areas of the central region of the country.

“Through its varied programs, the Non-Governmental Organization assists in strengthening Panamanian rural cultural tourism with a focus on the original fiefs of the Duchy of Veragua, founded in 1537 and comprising of nearly half of the current Republic of Panama.,” stressed the President of the Tourism Commission of APEDE, Jaime Figueroa, in an article published in the local newspaper La Estrella de Panamá.

Mr. Figueroa said that while in second place in the world tourism arena, with 58 million visitors annually, Spain has vision, experience and an undeniable trajectory of success as one of the most beautiful and richest countries of global cultural heritage.

“Previously, similarly to Panama, the giant Iberian peninsula marketed primarily its sun and beach forms of tourism, recently expanding people’s incentive towards cultural tourism, idea where Panama enjoys enviable continental preponderance”, he pointed out.

This topic was exposed to APEDE by the Duke of Veragua, who was accompanied by Pascual Montañes Duato, President of the Foundation at Panama, and Jaime Ruiz Peña, General Director of Public Companies in the province of Extremadura, where tourism is a real walk through history, marking each route with different artistic surroundings, embracing as common denominator nature, something Panama has a surplus of.

Mr. Figueroa shared how the visitors presented the purpose their recent visit, exalting the donation of an image of St. James the Apostle to the Church of Nata de los Caballeros, the oldest church founded in the American Mainland on May 20, 1522, a historical site that, in the absence of greater popularity, should be promoted more strongly by the authorities.

The President of the Tourism Commission of APEDE added that the second church of greater importance in the continent remains still remains in the island of San Pedro, founded by Vasco Nuñez de Balboa in 1513 and best known for its main village, Taboga.

The visitors also referred to valuable propositions such as augmenting the potential for the development of the Camino Real between Panama City and Portobelo, as a tourist trail, complementing the pilgrimage of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, which be for sure a colossal attraction, bringing hundreds of thousands of annual visitors to the isthmus.

The Castilla de Oro Foundation led by entrepreneur Richard Fifer Carles aims to promote the sustainable development of these regions of Panama in order to generate wealth and well-being for its inhabitants, both now and in the future. With this plan, the region will become a cultural, first call tourist destination, and provide it the necessary infrastructures to achieve this goal.

With the first aim of recovering this region back into the international tourist map, the entity will promote “Castilla del Oro” as a place where visitors can explore history and the steps of the 16th century adventurers while becoming the new discoverers of the 21^st Century. In this region awaits an earthly paradise, a joyful land where the jungle, history and beach are embrace; a bastion of civilization and culture where time moves slowly and remains motionless to the passage of time.

The entity will recover the historical memory of the region, placing all folk traditions, both from first regions like those in Spain: from the music and dancing, crafts, regional costumes, religious rites and, in general, the folklore and character that have forged the idiosyncrasies of this town.

Strategic and social responsibility Press Release

Foundation Castilla de Oro  and GPEX were among the participants and told how they got great results in their actions.

Successful projects, created by major companies from different sectors were presented at the Seminar on Strategic Communications Management, promoted by the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid.  Among the participating companies were the Society of Public Administration of Extremadura (GPEX) and Fundación Castilla del Oro.

Both entities, that just signed a mutual cooperation agreement, spoke of their experience in corporate social responsibility and the importance of joining forces to achieve more effective action on both social and business levels.

The president of the Foundation Castilla del Oro in Spain, Cristobal Colon de Carvajal, commented that the foundation was able to communicate with people from different backgrounds, obtaining the support of authorities, the population, religious institutions, public and private institutions and thereby developing tourism in the central regions of Panama. Today the project is  involved with  32 municipalities.

Sharing a common goal, the general manager of GPEX, Jaime Ruiz Peña, spoke of the benefits that can be transferred to society through a series of simple but effective actions and the importance of sharing knowledge. ”In today’s world, the one who cares is the one who has more and companies will become stronger together.”

GPEX  was given the highest award for human resources management in Spain, instituted by the Spanish Association of People Management and Development (AEDIPE), the entity Human Management System (HMS) and Human Capital magazine.

Every mining project that is developed by a company which is environmentally and socially responsible organizes the exploration, plant design, relevant industrial processes, builds infrastructures, as well as the plant start- up and final closure of the mine, as part of a carefully planned and well supervised process in all of its stages.

The environmental consciousness of the modern world is so high and demanding that nowadays all mining projects that take place in democratic nations of our hemisphere, are under severe and rigorous scrutiny by private and institutional investors, by citizens and institutions that monitor their actions, as well as by national and local governments.

To reach the decision point, meticulous and highly specialized studies are required in order to precisely reveal and identify the risks, mitigation measures, compensation and restoration necessary for the production and eventual closure of the facility.

With the current levels of control and supervision specified by broad and thorough international and national legislation as well as in the rules agreed upon in the strict Codes of Conduct and Best Practices, the level of demand from providers of chemical supplies, critical in the operation of a XXI century gold processing mine, forces the application of the latest technologies to ensure a viable and sustainable environmental activity.

These conditions, that are part of the Molejon Project, allow an environmentally friendly process and guarantees that substances such as lead, mercury or arsenic, heavy minerals and substances that do not exist in the site and that are not necessary during the gold processing or in the tailing areas where production waste is deposited will be generated.

Rehabilitation of the zone used in the site will begin even before the Molejon project comes to an end.

The equipment used at the plant will be dismantled to reduce post-mining environmental liabilities on closure of the facility. This plant´s closure plan becomes a responsible, timely and environmentally safe accountability tool, that begins with the exploration phase and is a commitment and an obligation that all mining companies must fully comply with.

It will be the citizens and government institutions who will be responsible of monitoring the correct implementation of these processes.

The mining sector should publicize all technological and environmental advances in order to prevent ignorance not only of the development of the industry´s environmental sustainable and economic viability, but also to show how it will provide the most jobs and highest wages for decades in the interior of the country.

EL SIGLO / ECONOMY

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2007

Its investments exceed $45 million dollars

Doralis Montenegro Escobar

This project is located in Donoso, which is in the province of Colon. Actually, the town is located north of Coclé and west of Colón.  The company responsible for the project decided to use the access roads that pass through Penonomé – La Pintada, which was a bit more accessible then.

The area where the mining exploration by building a quarry is wanted is a place where inhabitants have worked on gold extraction for 35 years.

The group of engineers that work with Petaquilla have pointed out that, due to the wide ranging analyses entailed, it becomes the second largest project in Panama, after the Canal.

Legal Aspects

The project had been proposed since the late 60’s but it was not until the 90’s that negotiations were restarted, which resulted in the signing of Contract-Law #9 between the Republic of Panama and

Minera S.A. on February 26, 1997, when the Petaquilla concessions were granted. $4 million dollars have been allocated in state bonding according to the parameters established in the contract-law.

PETAQUILLA PROJECT’S AREA OF INFLUENCE – 50Km.

The company responsible for this has estimated an investment in excess of $45 million dollars and a project lifetime of 20 to 40 years, where an annual extraction of 120,000 ounces of gold is foreseen.

The company’s objective is to develop three aspects: community, economic and environmental management.

Labor Aspect

Donoso is considered to be one of the regions where people go through more hardship, placing its inhabitants in extreme poverty. With this mine’s implementation the project has generated around 1,000 direct and indirect jobs, 8% of which is feminine labor, estimated to increase 12% within three years with workers aged between 24 and 41, the majority being 24 to 45 years old. Regarding salaries, it is estimated that they lurk around minimum wage, which has brought relief to the families.

Benefits for the communities

Since analysis for the quarry’s development started the company had to develop certain projects in order to make access to the area easier which, in turn, would bring benefits to the inhabitants. The Llano Grande – Coclesito road is one that has benefitted as well as the construction of bridges and access roads for the community. Medical tours are carried out by health programs while providing assistance to the region’s inhabitants. Different programs are developed in schools. Currently, the Coclesito Senior High School is being built to see that students can count on adequate schooling. A hot meals program is under way and educational programs are executed as well as general guidance for the community through lectures and seminars.

Environmental Aspect

Environmentalist groups have expressed their disagreement with the pollution and deforestation that could occur in the area. When we spoke to some of their members they commented that they have requested the government for a moratorium because they point out that harm caused by mining is too high, not only from an environmental perspective but also to the inhabitants’ health which could be affected by damaging their skin, sight, get cancer that may not show up now but the consequences could be seen in the long run. After all the gold has been extracted, the environmental harm could remain for up to a thousand years.

Nevertheless, Petaquilla project’s Rafael Eysseric, states that such questioning is false for they are accused of using pollutants like cyanide, for example, material that will have to be used when the gold is processed but they are not even using now. According to Eysseric, the company has obtained permits to buy cyanide. On the other hand, Chiara Ramos who is in charge of the environmental phase pointed out that many studies have been undertaken and many of them have been approved while developing reforestation programs, inhabitant orientation, and building touristic places simultaneously, all with the intent of conserving nature. The project’s pros and cons are diverse; the truth is that it is underway and time will come when its results will be seen.