Richard Fifer

The Panama Infrastructure Development company (PDI, for its acronym in Spanish), as an executing arm of Petaquilla Gold, S. A. and includes all the services that are offered to the mining project of Molejon, has the goal of positioning itself as a partner for any construction firm in the central region of the country.

This is how PDI general manager, Jose Luis Dieguez, stated it, who added that after years of accumulated experiences in the mining development, the intention is to expand its action radius to the copper project of Minera Panama, with the construction of infrastructure works.

Through the vision of businessman Richard Fifer – Carles, Petaquilla Gold, S. A., through PDI, seeks to expand to work in other areas of the provinces of Cocle, Los Santos, Herrera and Veraguas, including the execution of projects that the Castilla del Oro Foundation does, to promote tourism in rural areas of this region of the country.

The Paseo Andaluz tourist development, built by the Castilla del Oro Foundation, led by entrepreneur Richard Fifer Carles, located in the San Antonio neighborhood of the Penonome district in Cocle, will also include the old “Alicia Theater” where the students from the Music School of Penonome will be able to receive their classes and perform for the people of Penonome and the rest of the province.

Meanwhile, the Casa Museo counts with a special room equipped with the latest computer equipment at the disposal of all people, especially students, so they can acquire technological knowledge and meet their needs for curricular research.

Colon: port city with a lot of history

Colon’s governor, Pedro Rios, is very clear about the present of his region and that it’s future has to be linked to entrepreneurs with vision

Stated the governor “Panama needs entrepreneurs with vision.  The Castilla del Oro Foundation gave us the privilege to travel to Spain to observe the latest in tourism.  Exploiting our rich history for tourism with the support of the Castilla del Oro Foundation will be something without precedents.  Richard Fifer-Carles (promoter of the Foundation) doesn’t know the magnitude of this contribution to our region”.

Colon is a port city with a long colonial history; we were conquered by many people who left their mark in different places; like in Portobelo, San Lorenzo, and Belen.  We are certain we are building the foundations that will be strengthen with the aid of the Castilla

Pascual Montañés, president of the La Castilla del Oro Foundation in Panamá was asked about the origin of the Foundation’s name and he said “the four central provinces and the province of Colon were called La Castilla del Oro, hence the name that along with Engineer Richard Fifer-Carles, we have chosen for the Foundation”

HISTORY OF THE NAME LA CASTILLA DEL ORO

“Historically ‘La Castilla del Oro’ was claimed to be in Venezuela, then in Colombia, but in neither place was enough gold found to justify the name of ‘La Castilla del Oro’. And it was during Christopher Columbus’s fourth voyage that it was established that this zone, was indeed, the Castilla del Oro. So much gold was found, that between the years of 1506 y 1560 Spain extracted twenty one tons of gold from that Castilla del Oro, which funded the largest Empire the world has known, the Empire of Charles V, where the sun did not set” said Pascual Montañés.

“With the Foundation we will recover the best of our history, facing the largest challenges of the future” he concluded.

Panoramic view of the Primer Ciclo de Coclesito, built by Petaquilla Gold S.A., which brings adequate conditions for the students to receive their classes with the comforts and requirements demanded by modern education.

Visualizing the impact mining will have in the next few years, the Minister of Economy and Finances (MEF), Alberto Vallarino, announced the creation of the Panamanian Fondo Soberano, which will feed from the exceeding incomes generated by the Panama Canal and the royalties of the mining and oil activities of the country.

This initiative will follow the model of the Canal’s administration, with the purpose of generating a contingency fund, similar to the ones in Chile, Norway and countries of the Persian Gulf.

Vallarino stated this initiative pretends to responsibly use the additional income our country will receive from the Panama Canal’s expansion.

According to the figures from the General Comptroller of the Republic, during the first five months of 2011, gold sales totaled 43.1 million dollars, 15.2 millions above the same period last year, placing this product as the number one export registered in Panama.

Gold mining has registered a notable upturn, so much that the exports increased 54%, according to the General Comptroller.

Given this behavior, the president of the Mining Chamber of Panama (CAMIPA), Roberto Cuevas, said he felt optimistic about the development of the industry, essentially, gold and other metals.

Regarding the upturn on the metallic exports of Panama, Cuevas stated this tendency is due to the beginning of operations of the Petaquilla Gold S.A. mine, led by entrepreneur Richard Fifer-Carles, which started extracting gold from the mountains of the Donoso district in Colon 18 months ago, and sends it to Canada.

For the fiscal year 2012, the Canal will generate direct income for the State in an estimated amount of 950.7 million dollars, which will serve as the “seed” in the event this proposal is approved

According to official estimates, as of 2014, when the third set of locks becomes operational, the income obtained by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) could reach 5.000 million dollars.

The Fondo Monetario Internacional (FMI) has presented the Ministry of Economy and Finances (MEF) a series of instructions regarding the structuring of the Fondo Soberano.  In a country where the non-conservative management of the State’s finances has been frequent as Panama, the creation of a fund of this kind is well regarded by analysts, economists, investment banks, and rating agencies.

by Jenny Caballero, Panama

At the headquarters of the Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture of Panama, the specialist from Dupont, Jean Jacques Covos, presented in detail to a large number of journalists, ANAM and MICI specialists, as well as the country’s most important mining companies during a specialized workshop on the safe handling and use of cyanide in the industry. He explained that Panama has many resources, capacity and human resources to become a successful mining country. However, there are internal and external pressures from certain environmental groups that oppose, often without sufficient knowledge of the processes that take place in this type of processes and projects.

Covos, Chilean expert with over 30 years of experience in the mining industry was in the country teaching a workshop on “Mining and safe use of sodium cyanide for leaching,” event that was organized by the Mining Chamber of Panama. He explained that these people (environmentalists) are “fanatical of a pure environmentalism that could even be environmental terrorism.”

During his speech the expert said that although Panama is new to metal mining pure mining did occur through activities such as cement production and work to expand the Panama Canal.

“Opening the mountain to build the third set of locks is pure mining, but it isn’t until now that Panama found it has resources in the subsoil, a wealth that belongs to all Panamanians,” said Covos.

For his part, Carlos Salazar, of Petaquilla Gold, S.A., led by Richard Fifer-Carles, explained that in the Molejón mining project cyanide leaching is performed in closed tanks with all safety measures, involving occupational safety and health and environmental management for the wellbeing of workers and surrounding communities because, to be a miner, you have to respect the environment.

The responsible technician from Petaquilla Gold explained that there had been heavy rains, and even the tail of hurricane Thomas affected the Donoso region, leaving many victims, while the project continued its production without being affected because of the engineering designs and the perfect functioning of the tailings basins. He also explained how the company provided support to the victims, with donations of all types of building materials, aqueducts, food, water, supplies and tools.