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.
Diamante Minerals announced a gold stream agreement for the Molejon Gold Mine, located in the Donoso District, Colon Province of Panama.
From a press release issued by Diamante Minerals:
KELOWNA, BC, Feb. 3, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Diamante Minerals, Inc. (OTCBB: DIMN), a natural resources company, today announced a gold stream agreement for the Molejon Gold Mine, located in the Donoso District, Colon Province of Panama.
The Supreme Court rejects appeal case presented by Petaquilla Minerals to reverse the cancellation of the concession to exploit the gold mine El Molejón.
The appeals filed by the former concessionaire of Molejón in an attempt to recover the concession and invalidate the tender which was called by the PAN for cleaning tailing basins have been rejected by the Supreme Court.
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.
Estimates are that there are $200 billion worth of metals in the Panamanian subsoil, with copper predominating.
Although the largest proportion of mining reserves is copper, the four gold deposits identified alone are valued at about $5 billion.
Anpanama.com reports that "... The Panamanian government has granted in concession most of these deposits and their exploitation is currently in different stages, yet none have passed the stage of mining, which is when the material is excavated. At the moment Minera Panama has under construction the Panama Cobre mine which involves an investment of $6 billion.The Cobre Panama mine will be in production in late 2017 or early 2018. Another major project in gold and silver is Petaquilla Gold, which is currently paralyzed due to financial problems. "
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 area is seeing new banks, restaurants, hotels and shopping centers as well as a boom in housing construction and the renovation of transport systems.
The Comptroller General of the Republic, has revealed that at the end of 2012 the value of gold exports reached $115.7 million. "So far, the only company in the process of exploitation is Petaquilla Gold, though it is expected that the end of 2016 will see the start of the Cobre Panama project (as it was called by Minera Panama, predecessor in the concession), now First Quantum", reported Laestrella.com.pa.
The two large mining projects in Panama have agreed on terms of cooperation, trade relations and dispute resolution.
From a statement by Inmet Mining Corporation:
Inmet Mining Corporation (TSX: IMN) and its subsidiary, Minera Panama SA ("MPSA") and Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. ((TSX: PTQ) with some of its subsidiaries (collectively, "Petaquilla") are pleased to announce the signing of a term sheet which establishes a binding agreement between the companies related to the purchase of aggregates, access and use of land, settlement of certain claims, remission of royalties to be received by IMN, and leasing of a camp site for the benefit of mining operations of Petaquilla and MPSA in the district of Donoso, Panama.
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.
Although the law does not require them to, the two mining companies pay voluntarily royalties of 4% to the Panamanian State.
Both mining companies indicated to Capital Financiero that although there was an amendment to the Code of Mineral Resources in Law 13 of April 3, 2012, their concession contract with the Panamanian state is governed by Law 9 of February 27, 1997 , therefore the changes made to the reform are not applicable to their activity.
Petaquilla Gold plans to increase its extraction of gold this year at its mines in Panama from 6,000 to 8,000 ounces.
The president of the multinational mining company Petaquilla Gold, Rodrigo Esquivel, presented these forecasts for the year 2012.
At the same time, Esquivel delivered a total of $2,032,746.42 in two separate checks in royalties to the State of Panama and other commitments for the concession for the last two quarters of 2011, reported Laestrella.com.pa. One of the checks, $863,917.23 was made out to National Treasury of Panama, and another in the amount of $152,455.98 corresponded to the township of Donoso, located in the homónimo district.
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 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.