Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. (TSX:PTQ)(OTCBB:PTQMF)(FRANKFURT:P7Z)(the “Company”) is pleased to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Petaquilla Gold, S.A., a signatory of the International Cyanide Management Code (the “Code”), has been audited by a lead auditor and a technical expert as part of the final process to become certified by the International Cyanide Management Institute (“ICMI”).

Companies that are signatories to the Code must have their operations audited by an independent third party to demonstrate their compliance with the Code. In this regard, Petaquilla Gold, S.A., once certified by the ICMI, will join only 14 other gold mining companies worldwide possessing this certification.

Within the next two months the technical expert will conclude a final review of the Company’s Molejon Gold Project to confirm compliance with minor recommendations prior to submitting the final report to ICMI for issuance of the official certification.

The ICMI was established to administer the Code, to promote the Code’s adoption and implementation, to evaluate its implementation, to manage the certification process and to make information on safe cyanide management practices widely available.

The Code is a voluntary industry program covering the manufacture, transport and use of cyanide in the gold mining industry. The Company supports the promotion of responsible management of cyanide used in gold mining for the purpose of enhancing the protection of human health and reducing the potential of environmental impacts.

About Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. Petaquilla is a growing, diversified gold producer committed to maximizing shareholder value through a strategy of efficient production, targeted exploration and select acquisitions. The Company operates a surface gold processing plant at its Molejon Gold Project, located in the south central area of its 100% owned 842 square kilometre concession lands in Panama – a region known historically for gold content. In addition, the Company has acquired 100% of the Lomero-Poyatos project located in the northeast part of the Spanish/Portuguese (Iberian) Pyrite Belt and several other exploration licenses in Iberia.

Public companies from Extremadura in Spain devoted to promoting tourism will visit Panama this month to meet the authorities of Colon Province with the aim of reaching an agreement to renew activities designed to promote San Lorenzo Fort as an international tourist attraction.

These agreements are made with the support of the Castilla del Oro Foundation which, seeking to reactivate tourism in certain areas, established its second operational centre in the Los Santos Province. As part of the initiatives, a launch was acquired to transport tourists in the Pacific sector of the Los Santos and Veraguas Provinces.

As a first stage in promoting tourism during the month of July, Castilla del Oro Foundation has also acquired two buses for transporting tourists from the beachside hotels to the historical monuments of Coclé, Los Santos and Veraguas.

Another project Castilla del Oro Foundation is to undertake is the remodelling of the Casa del Pueblo de Ocú and in the near future funds will be donated for renovating the San Francisco de la Montaña church tower in Veraguas.

http://www.diaadia.com.pa/edicion/actual/etcetera-interna.php?story_id=4714&edition_id=20110711

PANAMÁ.
Given the lack of resources, the Government commitment to mining as a source for funds for an ‘ambitious’ investment plan includes a series of mega-projects and other works set in the Investment Plan for the next four years.
The government ‘needs to raise more’, said the President of the Republic, Ricardo Martinelli.
Resources are needed for use in the execution of works, purchase of medicines, building hospitals and providing better services to the population.
While mining in the country continues to generate a potential rejection by the people, the government continues to show that they will not back down and is expected to approve next week the amendments to the Mining Code governing the activity.
Since last May, Minister of Economy and Finance (MEF), Alberto Vallarino, stated that the revenue gained from the new mining concessions would be funds for financing the works described.
Vallarino said that only Petaquilla Mine itself would provide $ 5.000 million in thirty years.
The government has raised taxes on taxpayers, the Fiscal Responsibility Prosecutor will not allow the State to continue borrowing said economist Adolfo Quintero.
Another alternative for obtaining government funding would be the sale of actions of semi-privatized institutions.
For 2011, the budget includes investments of $ 5.409 million add to that more than $ 200 million for damages caused during last year’s floods.
Quintero said these emerging factors are not covered by the budget, making it necessary to search for new sources of income.
The Plan of Government of the Alliance for Change, developed in the campaign, Martinelli
promised once in power, he would ‘update’ and review the mineral potential of Panama.

(this is an excert of the original article)

The spokesman for Petaquilla, Carlos Salazar, stated that the amount of sodium cyanide used is minimum and it is recylced because it is very costly. He considers that the environmentalists that warned of a possible spill are “alarmists” since he assures us that there is a production system in place that avoids any time of damage to the hydraulic sources.
Salazar stated that none of the leaching tubs store cyanide, and that due to the constant rain production had slowed down but were able to get maintenance work done.

Panama, Republic of Panama

During the Petaquilla‘s first quarter of fiscal 2011 production was seriously affected by a combination of a 30-year high level of rain and a lightning strike, which respectively resulted in a Molejon plant shutdown of 8 days in August and the inoperability of one ball mill for 28 days in June with a consequent slowdown in production. Average daily productions for those days prior to the above occurrences were 2,289 tonnes per day for the plant and 448 tonnes per day for the ball mill. Petaquilla estimates the loss of production in the first quarter of fiscal 2011 to have been approximately 31,000 tonnes and would have resulted in production costs per ounce in the mid-US$600 range. Despite the production shortfall, gross margin from the sale of gold in the first quarter of fiscal 2011 amounted to US$4.6 million.

Bob Moriarty
Feb 11, 2008
Archive

I’m just back home for a week before setting out on another two-week trip to China and the Philippines. I’ve been in South America for the last two weeks and I saw some real barnburner projects. You want to pay close attention for the next few days as I write them up.

Basically, junior mining companies have been sinking billions of dollars into the ground planting seeds, feeding and watering the tender shoots and harvest time is approaching. You are going to be reading about a lot of barnburner projects coming to fruition in the near future. $900 gold, $17 silver and $3 copper is going to suck metal out of the ground. Juniors have been on the back burner for the last year but that’s going to change right now, my favorite chart, the XAU over gold is screaming “Buy me, Buy me.” Gold and junior metals shares are fixing to rocket higher. Back up the truck while you still can.

After the successful destruction of both Iraq and Afghanistan, our Beloved Sock Puppet President Bush is now firmly committed to the destruction of the United States and the dollar. We needn’t worry about the dollar collapsing into a deflationary heap; the Fed is totally devoted to its destruction under an avalanche of paper. We are going to go the 1923 German inflation route. You don’t want to get caught holding paper assets; you want your money in hard production assets. Only they will retain value as your money evaporates.

I’ve said it before; I like mines just as they go into production. My recent three-day stint in Panama showed me a way-under-the-radarscope gold mine just about to go into production. I hadn’t even heard of the company but you need to know about it and its sister copper company.

Petaquilla Minerals (PTQ-T) is in the last days of construction of a 2,200 ton per day mill with annual production of 120,000 ounces of gold at a cash cost of about $200 per ounce. Did I ever mention that as gold goes blasting higher past $900 that production is the way to go? PTQ expects to have their first gold pour in maybe April, maybe May this year. I was there a week ago and the pace of construction was awesome.

Petaquilla has a long history in Panama. The President and CEO of the company is Richard Fifer. He not only founded Petaquilla, he was the former president of the Panamanian State Mining Company (CODEMIN) and former Governor of the Cocle Province where the Petaquilla projects are located. You can’t get any higher connections than that of Richard Fifer.

If you want to see what a model of a good mining website should look like, go look at either the site of Petaquilla Minerals, the gold company – or that of Petaquilla Copper, its sister copper company. The sites are so much better than that of most mining companies, that I want to cry. You can actually figure out what business they are in and where they intend to go.

Phase 1 of the Molejon Gold project of Petaquilla calls for spending $40 million dollars US to build a 2,200 TPD mill. The mill is expected to be commissioned in late April or early May of this year. Petaquilla expects to produce 120,000 ounces of gold in the first year with an expected mine life of 9 years. Currently the mine has a 43-101 resource of about 1.49 million ounces of gold.

Phase 2 calls for expansion of the mill to an expected capacity of 5,000 TPD, costing an additional $32.5 million dollars to be financed out of cash flow and debt.

In addition to the expected cash flow from the gold production, Petaquilla Minerals holds 22.189 million shares in Petaquilla Copper. (PTC-T) Petaquilla Copper was a spin-off of the copper assets formerly belonging to Petaquilla Minerals. As you can probably figure out, the twin companies share management.

Petaquilla Copper has a joint venture on the world-class copper project with Inmet Mining. PTC holds 52% and Inmet owns 48%, putting PTC in the driver’s seat. In addition, Teck Cominco has an earn-in agreement with PTC where Teck can pay all of PTC’s costs to production to earn a 50% interest in PTC’s 52%. Simply put, Teck can earn 26% of the project. In that case, at production, Teck and PTC would each own 26% and Inmet would own the remaining 48%.

The copper world is in turmoil. Teck has already put the JV with Novagold at Galore Creek on the back burner due to skyrocketing costs of construction. Similar cost escalations are taking place in Panama. Petaquilla Copper announced on February 8 that the costs on the copper project are expected to go up to $3.5 billion.

We are in an environment of a dollar dropping in value daily. That is what makes costs of construction go up. What Teck and Barrick and all the other majors have forgotten is that the debasement of the dollar not only make their costs go up, it makes the value of their product, copper and gold, go up.

They failed to see that if they were going to use current and accurate prices for their inputs, they must, repeat must, use current prices for their products. Teck got caught short at Galore Creek because they were using $100 a barrel oil and $150 iron but using a far too conservative figure for copper and gold. I think Teck was using $400 gold and those numbers are simply meaningless.

When the value of your currency changes 10,000 times a day, you cannot use today’s numbers. Because they will change 9,999 times by this time tomorrow. You must determine future demand because no one has any clue as to what the nominal value of the dollar will be in the three years it takes to get into production.

Luckily for us, we know future demand is secure. Once China and India began down the path to creating a consumer society, there is no way back. There will be future demand for far more copper than the world can produce today.

I love Petaquilla Minerals. They are going into production just as gold is headed for the moon. But I love Petaquilla Copper because there is a provision in their agreement with Teck. Teck Cominco has until March 31, 2008 to poop or get off the pot. They can belly up to the bar and pay the 52% costs to gain 26% interest or they can walk. If they walk, Petaquilla copper now owns 52% of one of the most desirable copper projects in the world.

The Petaquilla Copper mine has a 43-101 resource of 1.45 billion tons of .49% copper: about 10 pounds of copper per ton or $30 rock. If you add in the gold and moly credits, the mine holds 15 billion pounds of copper. The mill would process 120,000 TPD generating about 515 million pounds of copper, 87,000 ounces of gold and 5.9 million pounds of moly yearly for 30 years.

This massive production would rank Petaquilla Copper as the 11th largest sulfide mine in the world, just behind Bingham Canyon in Utah at just the first phase of development. Management has designed the open pit operation to be scalable so the mill could be expanded in the future to process 200,000 to 220,000 TPD.

Petaquilla Copper is in the catbird’s seat. If Teck announces their intention to complete their earn-in, PTC ends up with 26% of one of the biggest copper mines in the world. If Teck opts out, one of the five leading contenders standing in line to do a deal will step into their shoes. In either case, PTC wins.

Petaquilla Minerals Chief of Protocol, Luigi Jimenez and the PTQ IR person from Vancouver, Mitch Smith, picked me up at the airport. Each is in their 20s. They spent the next three days escorting me around and giving me briefs. I’m thrilled at the wisdom of PTQ management at bringing in young people. Face it; the industry has done a rotten job of selling the value of mining to young people. It’s wonderful to see a company who recognizes we must be bringing in young people with their insight to the industry.

We drove out to the PTQ gold project and wandered around before jumping into a chopper and flying to the mouth of the Belen River where Christopher Columbus first found gold in Panama in 1503 on his third trip to the New World. I stood on the same ground as Christopher Columbus did, 505 years before. And this company is going to mine the same gold as sought by Columbus.

Both Petaquilla companies are the dream of Richard Fifer. He began development of the gold project some 20 years ago. The project had proceeded to the feasibility stage by 1998 when it was forced into hibernation by low gold prices. 4 years ago Richard put the project back on the front burner and in two months or so it will be in production. Now is the time to invest.

Everyone I met from the company impressed me. My only real technical issue was that of expansion potential, 9 years mine life isn’t much. I spoke with John Kapetas, VP of Exploration for PTQ about the potential for expansion of the resource. He is supervising a 40,000-meter drill program for 2007-2008 (not all the results are in yet). He just laughed. He has half a dozen high potential targets and feels confident that there won’t be any problem finding more deposits nearby.

The current mine is located about 10 km from the mouth of the Belen River, the western boundary of the PTQ project. If Columbus found gold at the mouth of the river, it didn’t come from where they intend to mine, it’s too far away for the gold to travel. So I am confident that the mine life will be extended. If they develop more resources, the expansion of the mill to 5,000 TPD will ensure production of over 100,000 ounces of gold per year even at much lower grades or proportionally more gold at current grades putting them solidly in the mid-tier range of gold producers.

Panama is one of the most favorable areas I can think to have a mine of any sort. I used to fly though the country 30 years ago on my way to South America and it was little more than a Banana Republic run roughshod over by the petty little bureaucrats of the Canal Administration. Panama wasn’t as much a country as a colony of the US.

Panama regaining the Canal has transformed the country. It’s a major international banking center as well as a transportation hub. The food was wonderful, prices cheap and women beautiful. If you like that kind of stuff.

Richard Fifer is The Powers That Be in Panama. He has created a franchise of sorts for mining. Studies show that Panama could produce 8% of the world’s copper. It has the capacity for being a major gold producer. He loves his country and wants to create both jobs and the wealth that goes with building a major mining industry. Everyone I met was fired up and excited to be part of such a great adventure.

Petaquilla Copper faces a major milestone between now and March 31st. I suspect Teck will realize that if they want to be a major copper producer in the future, they need to make a major commitment now. My opinion, unsupported by anything other than logic, is that they will commit and construction will soon begin and the project will begin production about 2012.

Investing is always a crapshoot during the best of times. With prices up and down like a bride’s nightie, it’s even hard for major mining companies to make the right decision. But buying a major gold producer just as they are going into production is about as hard as falling off a bike. I don’t see PTQ going up 10 fold in the next week but it’s an easy triple in the next six months. They have great management, a mining-friendly location with brilliant infrastructure and a solid project.

PTC is going to make more major changes in the next 7 weeks than in their history. How they go into production is in question but that they are going into production is not in question. They will produce copper and gold and moly. The only issue is who owns what of the project. It’s pretty much a no lose deal for PTC. I look at the Teck or no Teck decision as meaningless. If Teck is smart, they will write a check. If they don’t, PTC is in a stronger position. The project is going into production, demand from China and India is going to suck the metal out of the ground at some price.

Both companies are about to be advertisers and I own shares. I am biased as I can be. I think the short correction in base metals is over and given the terminal condition of the US dollar, I cannot think of what better investment is possible than that of a productive profitable asset. Go to their websites and review them for yourself. Each is very well done and communicates the very real message of the two companies. They should be commended for having done a great job for their investors and prospective investors.

Both companies are cheap and that condition won’t last long. With last week’s announcement of higher costs for the project, Petaquilla Copper got hammered. Anyone who doesn’t realize costs are shooting higher is too dumb to own the stock so take advantage of their stupidity while you can. There is nothing wrong with either the stock or the project.

Petaquilla Minerals Ltd
PTQ-T $2.95 Canadian (Feb 8, 2008)
PTQMF-OTCBB
94.2 million shares
Petaquilla Minerals

The metal turned higher again after consumer thoughts worsened in early September to its weakest in more than a year. Another report indicated little underlying US inflationary pressure. Gold surged to $1,282.75 an ounce in the European market on expectations that the US Federal Reserve, hoping to stave off double-dip recession, could announce more quantitative easing — usually a boon for gold.

minerals - Petaquilla

Most mineral deposits in Panama, have an above average grade 2.5 ppm Au (Cerro Quema, Petaquilla Molejon, Minas Santa Rosa, etc.)

The formation and hence the existence of any mineral deposits on the surface of the  Earth is in itself a casualty of nature. The detection and subsequent exploration, require in depth knowledge of geological exploration techniques. If a site becomes a mining project (note that we have not said mine) depends mainly on the concentration of certain elements in the rock and where it is located.

On average a mine as noted by the columnist, removes 400 tons of rock to process 1 oz. Au (gold) (average grade of 0.7 ppm Au). With this equation, and if you know some economics such a mine would not be profitable and does not allow payment of costs extraction, processing and marketing so it would not be feasible.

Most mineral deposits in Panama, have an above average grade 2.5 ppm Au (Cerro Quema, Molejon, Minas Santa Rosa, etc.) And a lifespan of 8-10 years.
The writer is speculating and has entered into a field in which apparently she has no idea
what she is saying, how much land will be removed to get a certain amount of gold, apparently she does not know that the land is not removed or processed, In this case gold is linked to certain types of rock susceptible to impregnation and subsequent deposits of minerals due to hydrothermal solutions rising in areas favorable to it. That is why these sites are in areas with near-vertical escarpments making it impossible to use for agricultural purposes and / or livestock.

The economic model that is proposed to exploit the tourism, I ask what touriss would like visit a forest full of leishmaniasis, Chagas disease and malaria?, What is the plan to clean up these forests in order for the tourists to visit? And if so, how will you get them there? using who knows what means of transport, that the few ways of existing communication have been made by mining companies.

What happens when the mining companinies are finished with the resource? The roads, infrastructure, etc.. will remain so they are the ones that move the economy of a country.

Petaquilla employees drink water from rivers nearby the mine to show that there is no contamination

Carlos Salazar – Petaquilla

Representatives of the Petaquilla Gold mine rejected the arguments of farmers and environmentalists about the pollution of the Coclesito River and to prove it they bathed in the water and even drank water directly from river.
Carlos Salazar, in the presence of the media, bathed in the river with his son and public relations representative Fernando Rodriguez. “Petaquilla is accused of having polluted rivers, mainly Coclesito without scientific evidence, and have alarmed the people to later interview them.” said Salazar.
842 square Km is mine Molejon, 300 thousand cubic meters has the tub. He stated that the mining company is not using seven tons of cyanide and is not destroying the water sources in the region, as stated by the environmentalists.   He explained that in the operational phase they have taken advantage of the high level of rainfall, which increased levels of the tub of tailings, to say that there was spill, which is not true.
They also argued that theoretically the mine consumes 1800 cubic meters of water a day because the tub has a pumping capacity of 45 cubic meters per hour, but as rain fills it, they do not get to use 45 cubic meters, or much less 1800 per day.
Salazar said that Coclesito water can be consumed, although environmentalists accuse Petaquilla of having contaminated the water.
Leak
They say there is no danger to the level of landslide tubs
Location
They are in District Molejon Donoso
Research
Ancon Anam and take samples of water from nearby rivers

History shows that of 100 applications for exploration, two become mines and so Panama at its best will have 6-7 mines, which would have a surface of 3.500 to 4000 hectares, equivalent to 40 square kilometers, said Salazar.

It was a challenge without proof

The environmental Raisa Bainfield said she saw no evidence that Salazar was drinking water from the affected rivers.    “That bathing and drinking water from the rivers has no merit. That was will determine whether there is contamination or not is a committee of national experts that investigates the mine, and I say international because the government is biased in this issue, “said Bainfield, while trying to establish her theory that the mine is detrimental to the community.

Source: RAMOS Torrera Lineth – El Siglo