Mining exports shine, SIP highlights

The “Puntos de Vista” (Points of View) column, published by the Panamanian Industrial Union (SIP, abbreviation by its Spanish initials), one of the most influential  business associations in this country, points out in the Panamá América newspaper on Sunday September 11,  2011 in two columns that “now, literally the mining exports shine, because gold is our main export producer”.

But this is barely a small part of the quantity, and amount of goods and services that we will be exporting when Panama completely exploits all its mining potential, emphasizes the SIP column.

The effects of the Petaquilla Mine –led by impresario Richard Fifer – Carles- in the gold area, already have been felt in Penonomé.

There is a boom in this city that is not seen in other parts of our interior, emphasizes the opinion of the Panamanian Industrial Union.

The Panamanian Industrial Union (SIP), founded on August 10th, 1945, is the institution that groups, represents and defends the interests of the national industry.  It serves as a Communications, Information and Education entity amongst its affiliates, facilitating the orientation of the Panamanian industrialist in today’s changing World and bettering his competitive advantages.

Santiago’s Route in Panama

LA CASTILLA DEL ORO FOUNDATION

Santiago’s Route in Panama

Several years ago there were three pilgrimage sites, Catholic or Christian: Jerusalem, Rome and Santiago de Compostela. La Castilla del Oro Foundation headed by Richard Fifer – Carles is trying to create the fourth great destination. But not a destination like Spain, that from different nations or European countries people travel across the Pyrenees through Roncesvalles and also from different places in Spain, converging in Santiago de Compostela.

In Panama more than the Santiago’s Path, they are going to make the Santiago’s Route because according to the President of La Castilla del Oro Foundation, Pascual Montañes, “we want to offer a Santiago’s route, where it is a circuit and all the expressions of respect and gratitude that this land has for the Saint can be traveled – in reference to Apostle James”.

Ready to store

As a part of the social responsibility program of the Petaquilla Gold Company, is the donation of storage tanks for sardines.  Such donations make the work of the producers who develop their projects in the different communities surrounding the project, more manageable.

For this reason, engineer Richard Fifer Carles, manager of the company, feels special satisfaction towards the execution of all the projects that allow these producers to meet their goals.

It is important to point out that Petaquilla Gold S.A., is concerned about assisting many people with their social work because one of its targets is for the project’s neighboring communities to develop all the resources surrounding them to their full potential.  This is why the company will continue to provide all the necessary tools to everyone who needs them.

COLON HAS A GREAT POTENTIAL FOR BUSINESS AND TOURISM

Leopoldo Benedetti: “The Free Zone represents a 7.8% of the gross domestic product of Panama”

Colon is a province of Panama that has it all. Virgin beaches, large scale forests and very important projects that support the exportations of the country. Petaquilla, the Panama Canal and the Free Zone are the example. We invite you to share the following interview with the manager of the Free Zone, Leopoldo Benedetti.

Madrid, August 2011

Text and potos: G.B.G.

What does it mean to manage the most important Free Zone in the world?

It’s something fabulous, it’s a great job, imagine to lead a sector, a segregated area where you have three thousand companies. You have to see all the problems that these import and export companies have. It’s a city, anything can happen, immigration issues, customs problems, security problems, engineering problems, we are talking about something very big.

It’s something that makes you really proud, being able to lead a Free Zone of this magnitude especially if you know that it’s the first Free Zone of the World.

Does the Free Zone have a great impact in the exportation numbers of Panama?

That’s correct, in the Free Zone of Colon, when we started as manager in 2009, we would bee seeing in imports and exports eighteen thousand millions, and now days (two years later) we are at twenty four thousand millions, which means that it has increased six thousand millions in two years.

The Free Zone represents a 7.8% of the country’s gross domestic product, this is great for us, we are talking about approximately three hundred million dollars that we are giving to the country’s gross domestic product.

GOLD WOULD BE A GREAT PROFIT TO THE COUNTRY

The exportation of Gold of Petaquilla is what sustains the other part of the exportations in Panama and curiously they are both in Colon.

Correct, the good part of the Petaquilla mine is that it has gold, not only copper. Gold has risen sharply in value.

Now a day’s one of the biggest makers of the country is the Panama Canal, remember that during the first years that the Americans owned it, it paid almost nothing, and in the few years that we´ve owned it we have doubled the money that they would pay us, so returning to the gold of Castilla, we know that eventually it will be a great entry for the country, especially an excellent mineral resource.

How would you describe the Free Zone? How do you keep more than three thousand companies? How do you control the security system, and what are the codes that are given to the companies to control them?

When an entrepreneur wants to settle in the Free Zone, they have to create a Panamanian corporation, with that they will present themselves to the Free Zone with the intention of exporting or importing.

We manage the code, it’s like an identity number, with that we identify the company and we can control it. We can also, at any given time when something is done that should not be done, stop the code to investigate. The code for use is of highly importance.

Management of the Free Zone is around three thousand companies, which is what we have right now, of which are producing twenty-four thousand million of dollars on exports and imports, and its growing.

Panama is growing, and the ministry of commerce is going out to represent the country, in what is called Panama Invest and that is bringing us a great quantity of investors to the country, which have a great deal of interest to maintain in the Zone, once they see the opportunities that the Free Zone has, they come here.

You pay some fees but not taxes, and that is very appealing to these merchants or these other industrial countries.

What volume do you manage annually?

We are talking about twenty-four thousand million. Were more is bought is in Singapore, they are our largest importer, then Taiwan, Korea, Mainland China. Europe has certain products, the same as United States, Mexico and South America another bit, but the most imports come from Asian countries.

PANAM HAS GREAT POTENTIAL FOR TOURISTS

What other advantages has the entrepreneur beyond tax exemption?

The advantage that they would have is that we are in a free country, there are no problems, the legal security of this country is very important.

Here we also have a large banking area, were you can processes any transfers to any other bank in the world. In Panama, the food is great and you have great tourism, so a person that would like to settle in Panama, would be settling in a first world country.

How much Money would you have to invest to set up in the Free Zone?
At the beginning it would be very expensive, you would have to buy or rent a premise, hire staff, get patents, install it, bring your family, put your family in school. Therefore I recommend to be represented. Once you gain experience, then you can come and settle in as a Free Zone user.

We imagine there are merchandise of all types, ¿is there any par excellence?

In the Free Zone of Colon, you find everything, clothes, gold, jewelry, perfume, liquor, cigarettes, food, shoes, sneakers, electronics; we are talking about 750 hectares of land, full of deposits.

Leopoldo Benedetti, Manager of Free Zone of Colon in Panama.

March to reaffirm support for mining projects, says Arcelio Vargas from Coclesito

Coclecito community spokesman, Arcelio Vargas, said the march was done to reaffirm support for mining projects, but also to call on authorities to act and “stop street and river activities by tiny groups from the area” that, according to Vargas, are instigated by outsiders whose actions adversely affect works that benefit them such as roads, water projects, food, fuel, among other advantages.

According to Vargas, residents of communities such as Calle Larga, San Benito, Nazareno, Nuevo San Jose, San Juan de Turbe, Cocle del Norte, Santa Elena, Coclesito, Sabanita Verde, Caimito, Villa del Carmen, Penonomé, Tambo, among others, attended this activity.

Personnel, logistics from the mining company, project launched by entrepreneur Richard Fifer Carles, and walkers expressed that it was a march for the communities’ life because many advances have taken place in these towns.

The Road to Spirituality

Madrid, September 2011

The Castilla del Oro Foundation with Eng. Richard Fifer-Carles pretends to provide the Castilla del Oro area with a plan that allows sustainable development based on Spiritual Tourism.  In this subject, Pascual Montanes, President of the Castilla del Oro foundation in Panama, tells us “we want to offer the tourist that comes to Panama a road to spirituality.  We have discovered that the first Catholic Church in the American Continent is located in Nata de los Caballeros, which was the capital of the Castilla del Oro.  Our slogan for all the tourists that want to come to Castilla del Oro is “Santiago’s Road does not end in Compostela”. It doesn’t end in Spain”.

The Spanish received the Christian Faith from Santiago Apostle, when they arrived to America, they dedicated the first church of the American Continent to him.

In our last trip we brought a life-sized bronze statue of the Saint made by a recognized and prestigious Spanish sculptor, Luis Martin de Vidales, as a way to begin placing small pieces that invite you to take the road of spirituality, of renovation, where not only your body rests, but it may also get tired from the journey, yet it returns or ends renewed”.

Panoramic view of the road built by Petaquilla

Panoramic view of the road built by Petaquilla, S.A. for the benefit of the residents of communities surrounding the mining project and maintenance of the green areas of the Villa del Carmen community. The company has developed both projects as part of the Corporate Social Responsibility Program run by the Petaquilla Foundation.

It is impossible to implement a development project without impacting the environment in which we live; even the slightest activity performed by human beings, in some way or another, leaves an imprint on our environment.

One just goes out to the streets and realizes this premise: works like the subway, the expansion of the canal or the many developments and buildings that are erected in Panama City and surrounding areas.

Proportionately, something similar happens with development projects, only that the level of demonization has been such that no one stops to evaluate the benefits they bring in terms of income, improving people’s living standards as well as the construction of structures such as schools, health centers and access roads, among others.

There is no denying that mining affects the environment, as highlighted by those who engage in this activity. These projects are accompanied by the development of the country’s remote areas where poverty prevails due to lack of state support.

In Panama, perhaps the flagship mining project is gold in Petaquilla, which has already begun producing the precious metal and generating income from trading this good.

Beyond this, the company has well in advance left its legacy in the area of ??Coclecito with projects ranging from enabling the access road to this community to works of social impact.

Roberto Cuevas, president of the Mining Chamber of Panama (CAMIPA), said that the development of the mining industry in Panama depends absolutely on proving to society as a whole that “this industry is capable of the highest degree of excellence in developing its activity.”

As it has progressed in developing the mining project, Petaquilla Gold, S. A. has developed outstanding innovative social programs such as “hot meals” that benefit elementary school students in the province of Coclé, and whose impact is proven by the decrease in dropout rates from 75% to 12% in 2007, said the company representative, Leonel Arosemena.

The current demand for copper and other metals presents itself as an opportunity to develop the industry without neglecting the procedures to reduce environmental damage, representatives of the mining industry said.

Under the vision of entrepreneur Richard Fifer Carles, Petaquilla Gold, S. A. has created the Petaquilla Foundation and the Castilla del Oro Foundation to promote projects focusing on social, economic and touristic development in the provinces of Colón, Coclé, Herrera, Los Santos and Veraguas.

Mining companies offer alternatives to communities

Petaquilla Foundation donates school supplies to Coclesito’s Ciclo Basico General

A little less than a year ago, there was a flood in the mountainous area of Cocle and Colon, affecting the educational facilities. After two months, the government didn’t offer any solutions, so the Petaquilla Gold S.A. Company led by entrepreneur Richard Fifer-Carles offer their support. This allowed the schools to be repaired so the children could attend their classes.

Mrs. Silvia Martinez Avila, mountainous area’s resident, described the reality of their day to day life, in which many times, the State can’t take care of all the needs of the country’s poor populations.

Ávila –one of the speakers during the consultation period that took place several months ago on the amendments to the Mineral Resources Code – noted that the communities where they live don’t have electricity 24 hours a day.

“We have electric service through a plant provided by Petaquilla Company and the maintenance has been provided in the last few months by Minera Panama and Petaquilla” she said.

She noted that each time they have knocked on these companies’ doors, they have given answers. “I’m sorry that sometimes people have their say and sometimes they speak on behalf of the farmers, that oppose the project, but they don’t have the needs that Cecilia Martinez has in her home” she said.

Avila said that she longs for the day, sooner or later, when progress and development will reach their communities, because in the mountainous region there are many young men and women wanting to be prepared; because I know that was one of Omar Torrijos’s concerns, that when that happened, people would not be prepared.

“But I believe if there is goodwill, the government should require companies for all the support so our youth can prepare,” she said.

Avila mentioned that many of the big machines that are used in the Project are run by young residents of these communities that have had the opportunity to study.

“I admire those men and women, who accepted the big challenge of building the Panama Canal over 100 years ago. Now, we, in those mountains, see mining as an ideal instrument for development and it is a challenge and we dare take it,” she said.

She said she respects the environmentalists but warned that until there was talk about mining in their communities, no one had taken an interest in them. “Now they say they care for our environment, but they haven’t developed any projects to educate us on caring for the environment, on making us aware of how to take care of our rivers and streams. That, they haven’t done,” said Avila.

Canadian investors in the presidency

A group of Canadian investors, lead by Tom Zsabo and Robert La Brie, made a courtesy visits to Julio Harris, minister of the presidency, for the purpose of exchanging ideas in relation to a series of studies of the feasibility for investments in Panama specially in the areas of communication, manufacturing, tourism and environment control. An aspect of the meeting is seen in the photo.

Petaquilla Gold, inside

Tuesday, August 31, 2010 Panama America

Despite fears, they say the critical area of the mine is not the washing pool

Text: Grace Nelly Chi

Photos: Mauricio Valenzuela

Four days had passed since word got to the media indicating the washing pool at the Petaquilla Gold mine had a spill of dangerous chemicals.  That day, one week ago, in a journalist tour to the facilities located in Donoso, Colon, and a critical part of the process was observed.

The extraction of gold at the site is done by forming large fragments of earth which are transported by trucks to a quarry.  From there, a series of advanced technology mills divide the fragments even further, this process is controlled manually and digitally

The earth particles are then sent to the leaching process which takes place inside iron tanks in order to be able to manipulate the cyanide gas.  The cyanide absorbs the gold from the earth.

The gold particles get stuck to special plates and whatever waste is left, which could contain a minimal percentage of cyanide, according to the techs, is sent to the washing pool.  This is a deep well of thick mud where the ultraviolet rays evaporate any cyanide residue.

The specialists of the site assure us that the presence of cyanide in the washing pool is minimal, since it is reused inside the leaching tanks for its high cost.  It was here, in a space with a capacity of 780 thousand square meters of material, where the feared spill took place.  Authorities will deny or confirm this in a few days.

According to Petaquilla Gold, they have not faced any spilling risks, reason why the emergency pool has not been used.

The risk is real, however they diligently monitor the leaching tanks, since a leak of cyanide could possibly kill the workers.  The washing pool is an area that doesn’t concern them as much.