Richard Fifer

Richard Fifer Web,  If the production cost is $800 per ounce the mine will make $200,000,000 over its life.

Gold Mining stocks are a popular way of investing in gold – albeit indirectly.

The perceived advantage of investing in gold mining shares is that their value is usually more sensitive to the price of gold than even a gold bar. This is because gold mining shares are valued on the basis of their anticipated profits through the life of the mine, and these depend on the reserves, and on the relationship between gold mining production costs and the anticipated value of the gold extracted.

Suppose a gold mine has 1,000,000 ounces underground and the above ground value is $1,000 per ounce. If the production cost is $800 per ounce the mine will make $200,000,000 over its life. But if the gold price rises by 20% to $1,200 the mine will make $400,000,000 overall. This demonstrates a ‘gearing’ effect of 4 times – i.e. for a rise in bullion of 20% the share will rise by the 20% plus another 4 times 20%, i.e. 100% (all other things being equal, which they rarely are).

Richard Fifer Web, Weak performance on behalf of the dollar has caused a reaction on the Gold price to a daily high of $1212.20/oz of Au and a low of $1192.50/oz of Au

The US Dollar stumbled once again against the Yen and Euro Friday morning after reports for the jobless claims jumped to the highest levels in 3 months. All those factors have pushed the dollar index down 80.3, a 9% decrease. Some people consider a 10% decrease a bear market; you take your own conclusions on this matter if you believe the dollar is behaving differently. Weak performance on behalf of the dollar has caused a reaction on the Gold price to a daily high of $1212.20/oz of Au and a low of $1192.50/oz of Au. Certain investors believe gold will reach its record of $1264.00/oz of Au, but this will not be in a short term.

$ 23.8 million were generated in the extraction during the first half of 2010 however, in 2009 it was only $ 1.7 million, experts say these numbers reflect the operation of one business.
Chi Grace Kelly
PA-DIGITAL
Panamanian gold exports are primarily destined to Canada. With over 30 years of exploration of potential gold deposits in the country and surviving the ups and downs of international price changes, the mineral extraction of gold quoted today in Panama is a reality that, despite opinions for and against, has in just months, skyrocketed.
The revival of gold export from the country changed from 5.749 in 2009 to 33369.168 ounces of gold during the first half of 2010, according to the Comptroller General of the Republic, adding that revenues in this activity rose from $ 1.5 million to $ 23.8 million in that period.
The figures, according to the Mining Chamber of Panama and experts in the field is due exclusively to the Petaquilla Gold SA, operations in the Donoso district of Colon, which entered its first semester of commercial extraction of gold, and already pays royalties to the State, of which not all agree on the amount.
The Petaquilla Gold mine confirmed by its CEO Richard Fifer, has managed to extract about 32,000 ounces of gold during these seven months, which averaged 6.000 ounces of gold per month, and could potentially produce 10,000 ounces per month, once it reaches a point of working at maximum capacity, which would be in 2012. So, today the total extraction coincides almost entirely with the country’s export figures.
The country under the contract signed between the State and Petaquilla Gold SA, gets 2% royalty on sales of the company, which would result in $1.7 million, and the change promoted by the current Government of 4% royalties would be $ 4.8 million that the company would cancel the first semester
this year.
This figure is minimal, in the opinion of Felix Wing, Executive Director Environmental Advocacy Center (CIAM), which explains that “these royalties do not compensate all the tax exemptions or tax credits provided for in the Contract. “
In this regard, Rodrigo Esquivel, director of Petaquilla Gold SA, said that ” income tax would be paid when the investment is recovered which could be in 2015, but they are contributing to the country generating at least 750 direct jobs.

Richard Fifer Web, “I had before arriving at Petaquilla Mine was very, very different, now that I had the opportunity to see and hear the explanations of the different specialists I have a very different view and I am clear that there is no problem”, Jose De Los Santos Betegón

Testimonial of the visit to the Project Petaquilla Gold, SA by Raúl Luján Corner coordinator and liaison Donoso District in matters of municipal projects.

“It was very good, the specialists from the Petaquilla Group are very knowledgeable and good teachers, and I think it is very important to have gone through this orientation to view the progress of the project and after questions and answers, we made some clarifications and suggestions with regards to the horizontal level extension and further work to bring all informational workshops to the communities that have received misinformation on the reality of the project. “
The impression I had before visiting the project versus now after having visited the project site many things have been cleared up with evidence and explanations given to us by the experts of this issue and mining, we have clearly seen that there is great ignorance on the part of certain sectors, which have unfounded issues that are far from a technical and scientific reality, and I congratulate the company for the work it is doing in the outreach to all stakeholder. I think a lot of it stems from what we are seeing on television and written media and even on the radio and I think that work should continue on better disclosure of their activities. “

Testimonial of the visit to the Project Petaquilla Gold, SA by the Donoso district Mayor, Feliciano Villarreta

Satisfied with the explanation given and having seen and felt the project “I am satisfied with the explanations you have given us, we thank you, we will remain open to the conversation, everyone has the right to think as they see fit, I have my own belief, you very well have told us how the project works and we will try to tell people the truth, nothing more, saying what you have told us and what we have seen and felt, “said Mayor Donoso.

Testimonial of the visit to the Project Petaquilla Gold, SA by Jose De Los Santos Betegón, mayor of the village of Rio Indio, Donoso District, “Look, the impression I had before arriving at Petaquilla Mine was very, very different, now that I had the opportunity to see and hear the explanations of the different specialists I have a very different view and I am clear that there is no problem as they say in the street and in the environment. I think that with what I saw and heard there is no contamination.

Richard Fifer Web, Korean companies have shown interest in investing in several major mining projects in several provinces

One of the main issues addressed in the Korean president’s agenda, Lee Myung-Bak on his visit to Panama at the end of June, was the exploitation of mineral resources. The Vice President of the Republic of Panama and Chancellor, Juan Carlos Varela said that Korean companies have shown interest in investing in several major mining projects in several provinces; also participating in projects for generation of energy.

Among other issues, the Korean President has an interest in encouraging trade, security and technology cooperation at the government level by negotiaty a treaty on double taxation and other free trade agreements.

Myung-bak met with the President of the Republic, Ricardo Martinelli in this meeting they shared their interests in strengthening the ties that bind both nations, which range from political, through the commercial and international cooperation between the two countries.

During his visit, President Bak, was part of the Summit of Heads of State and Government of member countries System Integration Central American (SICA) and the Republic of Korea, held June 28 to June 30, 2010. On Tuesday June 29 the second forum on economic cooperation between Korea and SICA, took place in the Marina Hotel Miramar Intercontinental.

Richard Fifer Web, Think of gold as the chicken soup for all the world’s ills. Gold’s price is influenced by numerous factors, including supply and demand, stock market performance, interest rates and geopolitics.

Robert Lenzner, Forbes.com

Date: Saturday Mar. 27, 2010 7:28 AM ET

Vancouver native Frank Giustra has been in the venture capital business for decades. After a hard look at gold and paper currencies through history, he became convinced in 2001 that gold was poised for a long-term climb in direct contrast with a long-term fall for the U.S. dollar.

Giustra founded Wheaton River and began buying small gold mines. The firm was merged in 2004 into Goldcorp Inc., the giant ($27 billion market value) mining concern.

Giustra next founded Gold Wheaton to buy gold from mining firms that were primarily interested in excavating copper and iron ore. Giustra is also behind New Gold Inc. and Northern Orion Resources, Inc., which are both involved in mining gold.

Another Giustra venture, Endeavor Resources, trades in Toronto and owns 41 per cent of Etruscan Resources, Inc., operator of a gold mine in Burkina Fasso, another West African nation. Endeavor is in a bidding war for Crew Gold, whose shares have quadrupled from 12 cents a share to 49 cents a share. Below, Giustra shares his views on gold’s prospects.

Why should I buy Gold?

Think of gold as the chicken soup for all the world’s ills. It’s certainly not the investment of choice for Pollyannas or, for that matter, for 90 per cent of the world’s economists.

Gold’s price is influenced by numerous factors, including supply and demand, stock market performance, interest rates and geopolitics. But I will focus on the two factors that, in my opinion, will drive gold’s price for years. Both fall under a broad category of policy reflation.

The financial crisis that began two years ago was the result of decades of economic mismanagement and binge behavior. I say “began,” because I believe that we are far from out of the woods. Greece is just one of many financial time bombs lurking in the shadows. What of the PIIG (Poland, Italy, Ireland, Greece) economies?

Could another one of them be next? And what of the commercial banks? Have we seen the last surprise in terms of toxic assets come to light, or could more be triggered by a further collapse in commercial real estate prices?

What does all of this have to do with gold?

The system is still extremely fragile and any nasty surprise will be met by continued policy reflation in two categories. The first involves continued high levels of bank reserves (via printing of money). The second involves high levels of sovereign debt as a result of historic budget deficits.

High bank reserves will lead to high inflation down the road. High sovereign debt will lead to the deteriorating creditworthiness of many countries and eventual currency debasement. Historically, both the above outcomes have been a boon for gold prices.

Let’s start with the U.S. America has had the privilege of acting as custodian of the world’s reserve currency since the end of World War II. It’s a privilege that it started to abuse in 1971 when [Pres. Richard] Nixon de-pegged the dollar from gold. Deficits, debt and printing of money followed, and a 40-year process of numbing ourselves to moral hazards brought us to a near-breaking point two years ago.

So how did we respond to all those lessons and a near-collapse of the entire financial system?

We ignored them and implemented policies that will only serve to exacerbate the problem for future generations. Unfortunately, to do a proper fix would require courage and leadership that is not politically feasible.

Behind the problems lie deep structural problems with the U.S. and other advanced economies and with the global trading system as currently structured. It can’t be fixed with a band-aid remedy of monetary and fiscal policy, but that’s another story.

For the purposes of predicting gold’s price, we need only accept that when governments can’t make ends meet they are faced with two unpopular choices: raise taxes or cut costs. (Politicians) will take the third choice: print money, borrow money and let future generations suffer the consequences. This is not a novel concept. It’s been practiced to devastating perfection throughout history.

The U.S., with a $12 trillion debt, generated a $1.4 trillion deficit in 2009 and will likely hit $1.6 trillion this year. Trillions more are projected over the next 10 years. Add to this unfunded liabilities of Social Security and an aging population and one has to ask how this debt will be serviced, much less repaid!

This dilemma is not America’s alone. Japan and Europe share some of the same problems. Japan has a gross debt to GDP ratio of over 200 per cent. What will happen when its saving pool runs out as a result of its aging population? How will it service its debt if it can’t borrow at exceptionally low rates?

How will these countries cope?

I predict that both the U.S. and Japan will eventually have to coerce their central banks into becoming buyers of last resort for their own sovereign debt, meaning they will have to print money. This will serve the dual purpose of keeping rates low to keep their fragile economies above water and maintaining their sovereign debt service at manageable levels.

What about smaller countries like Greece?

I predict with Greece there will be no default allowed, despite all the political posturing. The last thing the global financial system needs is a sovereign debt scare and all the policymakers know it. The bailout will come in some form that will serve to save face for all participants. The same goes for future candidate countries in Europe. Bailouts cost money and that means heavier debt loads for the Eurozone. As the debt piles up and creditworthiness becomes questionable, countries will print money to keep rates down.

The end result when you print far too much paper currency is that its value declines against real assets. In other words, inflation kicks in. Gold has been the best performer in inflationary periods. When investors become wary of sovereign creditworthiness and all currencies share similar symptoms, meaning there is nowhere to run, they run to hard assets such as gold.

That said, what risks do gold investors face?

Gold can come under short-term pressure in times of crisis when there is a rush to liquidity. In those situations gold can be just another asset to be sold to raise cash. During the crisis two years ago gold was briefly sold off in a rush to liquidity in the form of U.S. T-bills, which resulted in a dollar rally.

A second risk for gold is that investors will become fearful about exit strategies as the recent reflation causes economies to strengthen and interest rates to rise (something that is not good for gold). I doubt this is much of a risk because I believe economies are too anemic and the financial system too fragile to allow for much higher interest rates. The U.S. Federal Reserve (and other central banks) will end up being a buyer of last resort of U.S. debt if it has to keep rates at acceptable levels.

Will central banks remain big players in the gold market?

Central bank sales have always been the most unpredictable component of the demand/supply equation for gold. But as I predicted long ago, the day would come when central banks stopped selling gold. (Quite a few have in fact become buyers.) This past year was the first time that European central banks didn’t sell their 500 tons under the Central Bank Gold Agreement (in fact last year they sold just 150 tons, and I expect them to sell even less in the current year).

Since the U.S. closed the gold window in 1971, gold has traded inversely to the U.S. dollar. Recently, however, that hasn’t always been the case, and I sense a decoupling of that relationship. The U.S. dollar is just another abstract vehicle trading against other abstract vehicles. Gold and other hard assets will slowly trade as a group inversely to all paper currencies.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, Jun 24, 2010 –
Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. (“Petaquilla” or the “Company”)(CA:PTQ 0.35, +0.01, +1.47%) (PTQMF 0.33, +0.00, +1.01%)(FRANKFURT: P7Z) today announced an update on Petaquilla Infrastructure Ltd.

Petaquilla Infrastructure Ltd. has changed its name to Panamanian Development and Infrastructure Ltd. (“PDI”) and is in the process of completing an initial round of seed capital, to which Petaquilla has subscribed for a 47.78% interest in PDI. Richard Fifer, as Chairman, David Kaplan, Joao Manuel, Pedro Pablo Permuy and Jorge Silen have been appointed to the Board of Directors of PDI. Further, in order to develop the infrastructure business, PDI’s Board of Directors have appointed a management team consisting of Rodrigo Esquivel as President, Joao Manuel as Chief Executive Officer, and Antonio Renom as Chief Operating Officer. Messrs. Esquivel, Manuel and Renom, who together bring experience in management, infrastructure development, financing and law, will oversee the daily operations of PDI.

In a subsequent step yet to be completed, Petaquilla plans to further capitalize PDI through the contribution of infrastructure assets (heavy equipment used during construction of the Molejon gold plant but no longer required for the gold production operation), which will increase its equity percentage in PDI. PDI will then seek financing of $2 million through a private placement to address the funding requirements of PDI’s projects.

PDI has identified numerous business opportunities in Panama, including the development of mini hydro (run of river) plants, transmission lines, road and bridge building, and the manufacturing of construction materials, such as high strength construction bricks. Once the business has been established and gained a foothold in the construction market, Petaquilla intends to present a Plan of Arrangement, or some other tax favourable mechanism, for approval by the Toronto Stock Exchange and Petaquilla’s shareholders. The exchange ratio for the proposed future spin-out, as previously announced, will be one (1) share of PDI for every four (4) shares of Petaquilla.

About Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. – Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. is a gold producer operating its gold processing plant at its 100% owned Molejon Gold Project in Panama. Anticipated throughput for the project during the first year of commercial production is estimated to be 2200 tonnes per day. Commercial production commenced January 8, 2010. The Molejon mine site is located in the south central area of the Company’s 100% owned 842-square kilometre concession lands, a region known historically for gold content.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of PETAQUILLA MINERALS LTD.

Richard Fifer, Chairman of the Board of Directors

Petaquilla Minerals Ltd.

Richard Fifer Web
Petaquilla Minerals Ltd.
TSX: PTQ
OTC Bulletin Board: PTQMF
FRANKFURT: P7Z

Nov 18, 2009 09:25 ET

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwire – Nov. 18, 2009) – Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. (TSX:PTQ)(OTCBB:PTQMF)(FRANKFURT:P7Z) (“Petaquilla” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that the Government of the Republic of Panama has granted approval for Petaquilla’s Molejon gold mine to advance to the commercial production stage.

In accordance with Contract Law No. 9 of February 26, 1997, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of the Government of Panama issued a letter to the Company dated November 18, 2009, authorizing Petaquilla‘s subsidiary, Petaquilla Gold, S.A., to initiate commercial production at its Molejon gold mine located in the District of Donoso, Province of Colon, Republic of Panama.

The Government of Panama highlighted that Molejon will be the country’s first mining project of modern times and encouraged the Company to maintain its highest standards of responsible mining as it leads the way to a socially and environmentally conscious mining industry in Panama.

The Molejon gold mine is currently in its final stages of full commissioning. Since testing of production commenced resulting in the Company’s first gold pour on April 7, 2009, the mine has produced a total of 25,699 ounces of gold.

About Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. – Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. is an emerging gold producer commissioning the operation of its gold processing plant at its 100% owned Molejon Gold Project. Anticipated throughput for the project during the first year of commercial production is estimated to be 2200 tonnes per day. The plant utilizes three ball mills and a carbon-in-pulp processing facility.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of PETAQUILLA MINERALS LTD.

Richard Fifer Web
Petaquilla Minerals Ltd.
TSX: PTQ
OTC Bulletin Board: PTQMF
FRANKFURT: P7Z

May 21, 2010 15:00 ET

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwire – May 21, 2010) – Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. (the “Company”) (TSX:PTQ)(OTCBB:PTQMF)(FRANKFURT:P7Z) announces that it has closed its previously announced non-brokered private placement. As an update to its news releases of March 15, 2010, and April 22, 2010, the Company has issued 4,000,080 Units at a price of Canadian $0.50 per Unit, raising gross proceeds of Canadian $2,000,040.

Each Unit consists of one common share and one-half of one common share purchase warrant, whereby each full warrant entitles the holder to purchase one additional common share of the Company for a period of two years from closing at an exercise price of Canadian $0.85 per share.

The securities distributed under the private placement are subject to a four-month plus one day hold period expiring on September 22, 2010.

The proceeds from the private placement will be used for repayment of debt, for completion and development of the Company’s Molejon gold project in Panama, for exploration of the Company’s Oro del Norte mineral concession in Panama, and for working capital.

In connection with the closing of the private placement, the Company has paid finders’ fees in the amounts of $100,002 cash and 100,002 warrants, which are also exercisable for a period of two years from closing at a price of Canadian $0.85 per share.

The securities sold have not, nor will they be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended or applicable state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of a U.S. person, as such term is defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act, other than through registration or an applicable exemption from U.S. federal and state registration requirements. This release does not constitute an offer for sale of securities in the United States.

About Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. – Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. is a gold producer operating its gold processing plant at its 100% owned Molejon Gold Project in Panama. Anticipated throughput for the project during the first year of commercial production is estimated to be 2200 tonnes per day. Commercial production commenced January 8, 2010. The Molejon mine site is located in the south central area of the Company’s 100% owned 842-square kilometre concession lands, a region known historically for gold content.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of

PETAQUILLA MINERALS LTD