Mining companies and spanish citizens are suing the Panamanian State arguing arbitrary and discriminatory measures imposed by the Martinelli Administration are detrimental to their investments.
The companies Petaquilla Gold, Petaquilla Minerals LTD, and Corporación de Recursos Iberia, S.A. are sueing the Panamanian government for $2.3 billion at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) of the World Bank for direct damages against the company in Panama and its shareholders, reported Laestrella.com.pa.
Petaquilla Gold has been granted 180 days to catch up with outstanding payments of royalties, fees to the Social Security Department and other payments.
From a statement issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of Panama (ICIM):
The Ministry of Trade and Industry announced today, to representatives of Petaquilla Gold, the decision to administratively resolve the granting of the Molejón mining project, recognizing an initial term of 180 calendar days, during which the company can rectify its faults in contractual obligations.
The Securities Commission of British Columbia in Canada, has issued a resolution barring the two top executives of Petaquilla from trading shares of the company until financial information is presented for the period ending July 2014.
Problems continue for Petaquilla Minerals, which breached a salary payment arrangement that should have been finalized in October and it has now been reported that two of its executives have been banned from buying or selling shares in the company.
The hostile bid by Inmet Mining to acquire the mining company Petaquilla Gold did not have sufficient support from the shareholders of the latter.
Inmet reported that the minimum conditions of its offer were not met and therefore it was not able to acquire any Petaquilla shares regarding its $133 million proposal.
The companies operate mining projects in neighboring areas.
Exports of gold have topped the list of goods sold abroad; in the first 5 months of 2011 they totalled $43.1 million.
The industry has almost tripled compared to the same period in 2010, when sales were $15.2 million, and has displaced products like bananas, pineapples, meat and fish.
Roberto Cuevas, president of the Mining Chamber of Panama (Camipa) attributed the increase to the start-up of Petaquilla Gold, which is extracting gold from Colon and exporting it to Canada.
The Canadian company Minera Panama, SA announced that it will only pay a 2% royalty on profits to the Panamanian State.
The official response from the company was given last week, after several months of discussion with the current government, including after bringing up in the reform of the Mineral Resources Code (last February) the possibility of upgrading the royalties from 2% to 4%.
The gold mine project Petaquilla, located in Panama, agreed a leasing structure with a national bank for the purchase of heavy machinery.
According to a company press release, the agreement was made between the bank and Infrastructural Development Panama, SA (PDI), a company's infrastructure subsidiary.
The mining project located in Panama has agreed the sale to Germany's Deustche Bank of 66,650 ounces of gold over the next five years.
Petaquilla has announced that its production commitments with Deustche Bank represent only 6% of the projects total resources.
Of the $45 million price, $2 million will be invested in working capital for the mine while an additional $40 million will go toward paying off pending bond debts.
Since operations began in January 2010, it has had sales of $36 million, paid production expenses of $21 million and sold each ounce for between $945 and $1,152.
The company was granted mining rights on 18 November 2009 and will pay the state 4% of gross earnings over the 20 years it plans to operate.
Each ounce of gold Petaquilla extracts costs the company $600.
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