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.

COCLESITO AND ATLANTIC AREA RESIDENTS DECLARE THEIR SUPPORT

They agree with the region’s sustainable mining development

March 2011, Panama.

Over a thousand residents from the Districts of Donoso in Colon and La Pintada in Cocle communities, met on Sunday, March 12 at Casa del Pueblo in Coclesito. A massive rally organized by the Committee for the Atlantic Development, was preceded by a march through Coclesito.

The purpose of this big community’s meeting was to show their support to the social and infrastructure development that Petaquilla Gold S.A. is performing in the entire mining concession geographic area. They also asked the National Government that members of their communities take that message to the National Dialogue regarding mining that will take place soon.

Residents of Cascajal, Sardina, Coclesito, Molejón and other surrounding communities attended the event massively. The Governor Pedro Rios, the Donoso and La Pintada District mayors, members of the Municipal Counsel of Penonome and representatives from Petaquilla Gold S.A, Petaquilla Foundation and Minera Panama, the mining companies, attended the event.

The region is formed by the districts of Donoso, north of Penonomé, Calovébora and Santa Catalina, has fertile lands, vast mineral resources, rivers and healthy working people.

Coclesito began in the 70’s as a pilot town on the other side of the central mountain range to develop the virgin side of the Atlantic. This was General Omar Torrijos idea, who saw a lot of untapped potential in the region. In recognition of this, the community was officially named San Jose del General.  Today its development in remarkable in road improvement, schools, hospital, clinics, sustainable development farms and contribution to education.

Panama, April, 2011

The open sky mine in Donoso, Colon, produces each month nearly eight thousand ounces of gold and silver, a little over a year after initiating the commercial stage, commented the mining company Petaquilla Gold S.A executives.

Rodrigo Esquivel Klein, the company’s president, announced that this year they want to increase the production to 11 thousand ounces of gold, which would represent an approximate income of 100 million dollars, about 24 million more than in 2010.

This week, President Ricardo Martinelli, along with the vice president Juan Carlos Varela, visited the Project in Cerro Morejon and learned about the company’s progress and process. The company began extraction and selling gold on January 8, 2010.

The ounce of Troy gold is currently priced in 1,461 dollars in the international market. Petaquilla Gold practices what is known as responsible mining that is the reason why they are very committed with environment and biodiversity preservation.

Among their permanent and mandatory plans, they include reforesting and social assistance. They have a general concession of one thousand acres, but the gold extracting process is focused only in 40 and they have plans to reforest around 1,500 acres in different areas of the country.

Martinelli’s and Varela’s visit included a brief inspection to the Cobre Panama Project, which will be developed by another company, Minera Panama, S.A. 10 minutes away from Petaquilla Gold, S.A. They need to execute an additional millionaire community investment first.

The Duke receives acknowledgement from Parita

The warm environment that characterizes the Parita district, maybe sprinkled by the dusty air that usually comes from Sarigua’s National Park, was the stage to a ceremony filled with tradition, folklore and the legacy the Spaniards left during the colony.

Castilla del Oro Foundation’s President, the Duke of Veraguas, Cristobal Colon de Carvajal, was in this picturesque Herreran community, and was honored with the acknowledgement and was able to admire the typical show, and the indigenous dancing shows, which helped remember colonial times.

Approximately ten mayors from Herrera, Los Santos and Veraguas’ Provinces got together in this cultural event, in a reciprocity act, since months before a Panamanian delegation visited Spain to learn about the rural tourism experience, with the idea of duplicating it in the country’s central provinces.

This was a visit that included a Mass at a church whose facade preserves vestiges from a colonial past, like the layout of the community’s main square

They were the same mayor who visited Spain in May to learn about the experience of rural tourism, a field in which the Iberian country is a world leader.

The Azuero Region, where Parita is located, is known to be one of the areas in which the Spanish heritage is more deeply rooted.

Castilla del Oro Foundation’s goal is to rescue this rich past, multiply it and offer it as a tourist attraction in rural communities.

The aim is that these communities participate in tourism projects, with the mission of receiving the economic benefit that it produces.

Its purpose, to promote the sustainable development of rural communities in the central region, and thus, produce booms and welfare to its people, for which it will promote projects and provide structures to make this region a leading cultural tourism destination.

Castilla del Oro Foundation, encouraged by entrepreneur Richard Fifer Carles aims to promote the sustainable development of these region in Panama in order to generate wealth and prosperity to its inhabitants, now and in the future. To do this, he’ll turn this region into a first class cultural tourism destination, and will provide the necessary infrastructure to achieve it.

With this first objective of recovering this region into the international tourist map, the entity will promote “The Castilla del Oro” as a place where visitors can explore the history and steps of the adventurers of the XVI century and become the new XXI century discoverers. In this region waits an earthly paradise, a land where jungle, history and beach embrace each other; a bastion of civilization and culture where time moves slowly and remains unshakable over time.

The entity will recover the historical memory of this region, placing value on all the popular traditions, both First Nations and Spanish, from music and dancing, to crafts, costumes, religious rites, and in general, all the folklore and character that have shaped the idiosyncrasy of this people.

On the other hand, it will promote a series of infrastructures such as: CONVENTION CENTER, HOTELS, THEME PARKS, MOTELS, among others, to improve the quality of stay for tourists as well as the daily lives of its inhabitants.

Capital Newspaper

July 4-10  2011 No548

Section: Mundo Capital

Castilla de Oro Foundation boosts rural tourism

Provincial and municipal authorities from five provinces of the interior, whose regions in the sixteenth century were part of what became known as “Castilla del Oro”, when Christopher Columbus arrived in the isthmus of Panama, made a tour to visit various regions of Spain that have great potential in rural tourism, to learn from them and apply this knowledge in our country.

The tour made to the Autonomous regions of Extremadura and Andalusia was organized by the “Castilla del Oro in Panama” Foundation with the support ofthe Tourism Authority of Panama (ATP)

Amongst the many activities promoted by the Petaquilla Gold Company through its Petaquilla Foundation, we have the Training of Community leader that seeks to show the locals how to exploit their knowledge for the benefit of their own communities.

This training is provided by professionals who want to pass on their knowledge to these people, so that in turn, they can pass it on to the rest of people of their communities.

Seminars, lectures and training sessions are held year round in communities located within a 50 km radius pf the company. The intention is for the communities to have a partner that will help them organize and communicate their most pressing needs.

Aside from engaging in neat and clean mining, Petaquilla Gold intends to invest resources in social works. This wish has been turned into action from the very beginning by Richard Fifer Carles, the Company’s creator. As Fifer Carles has said over and over again, the company aims to maintain continuous contact with the thousands of people that live in the communities surrounding the mining Project.

Worth mentioning is the fact that the company’s social responsibility programs are aimed at achieving, lifting these people and their families from extreme poverty, malnutrition and ignorance.

Petaquilla Foundation is not only committed to its work of exploiting mineral resources, but also with the development of these communities as a way of paying back the support that everyone has given the Company.

Petaquilla Foundation is concerned with the promotion of a sustainable development culture in the area of influence of the Petaquilla mining project, that will impact the rest of the Republic of Panama.

Create and maintain social programs that promote financial Independence for those that participate in them, providing the means necessary for communities to develop and improve their quality of life.

Por Jenny Caballero

Petaquilla Gold, S.A.

On Monday May 16, 2011, the Canadian Agency Clearly Contact with the support of Petaquilla Gold and Richard Fifer, did a double shift of eye exams to the residents of the communities of Coclesito in the District of Donoso, Province of Colon and Villa del Carmen, district of La Pintada, province of Cocle, receiving thousands of people, which included adults, third age and children. They performed the corresponding eye exams to determine the need of lenses, that for various medical reasons and due to the necessity of special medical help, these compatriots had not been able to receive. The Canadian specialist, accompanied by the personal of the Foundation Petaquilla, as well as the Petaquilla Company, shared pleasantly with the inhabitants and not even the police force escaped from their respective check up and lenses provision. The international corporation, brings towns closer and this is an example of the corporation Norte-Sur, in which the inhabitants of the mentioned communities were the primarily beneficiaries because they work close by the Molejon mining project developed by Petaquilla Gold. Leaders of the community such as Cecilia Martinez and others also contributed their grain of sand in this activity, in which a small toast was offered to all the participants.

The Canadian Specialist accompanied by personal of the Petaquilla Foundation.