Category Archives: Mining

Richard Fifer -anonymous article

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A recent anonymous article posted on an internet website implied that Richard Fifer had been involved in illegal activities and that he had defrauded his business partners in the past.  This is a completely false statement.

  • Richard Fifer has never been indicted or convicted for any illegal activities in the Republic of Panama
  • The situation detailed in the article was about Minamerica Panama, of which Richard Fifer was only a shareholder and member of the Board of Directors.
  • Richard Fifer has never been charged for fraud or anything similar.

Upon reviewing the article it became clear that this was a deliberate smear campaign purposely aimed at discrediting Richard Fifer as the facts were garbled and misquoted.

read more soon….

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A project that will improve environmental conditions

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The apocalyptic vision of those who without any scientific basis predict a panorama, a devastating climate, is far away from the vision and projection of companies that like Petaquilla Gold, S. A. under the vision of engineer Richard Fifer-Carles look far beyond mining and visualize further lifespan development for Molejon gold sites.

Engineer Fifer Carles himself expressed this vision during the celebration of the Miner’s  Day, in which he pointed out that the company will continue to promote the progress of it once the gold extraction stage is concluded, through the sustainable development project of “Petarcilla”.

It’s about a project that the subsidiary company Panama Desarrollo de Infraestructura  (PDI for its acronym in Spanish, Panama Infrastructure Development) performs, and whose objectives are to improve the existing environmental conditions in the area near the mining project, the damage prevention of the environment, strengthening harmonical relations with the community and the generation of direct and indirect jobs.

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Life style of Petaquilla Gold S.A. Project

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The Petaquilla Gold S.A. Company through the company that promotes the Life Style Project, which tries to improve the character and ability of the people who work in the mining project of Molejon.

 

With this Project, the company led by the engineer Richard Fifer Carles, addresses fundamental issues related with the place where workers stay at night, how they dress, how they eat and how they are transported to their jobs.

 

“The company has made an important investment on this matter and aims to improve the life quality of the workers. And wants to give it as an example and service to make sure the workers that would be hired in the future have the same quality standards”, said the manager of risks and environment prevention of Petaquilla Gold, S.A. Lonel Silva.

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There is more and more natural spaces with management tools

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Madrid, September, 2011

La Castilla del Oro Foundation, led by Richard Fifer – Carles and presided by Cristobal Colon in Spain will develop a very important social labor in the area of Cerro del Andevalo –Huelva-. Along these lines appears the concern about environment topics, in this case, we will touch upon the natural spaces topic.

THE ECOSYSTEM

The complexity of the legal designation system makes it more necesarry that the standardization with the global system established by the UICN (Spanish acronym for Union Internacional de Conservacion de la Naturaleza, which means International Union for Nature Conservation) never happens. The results of the first prospecting allow to affirm that for 68% of the protected surface the UICN category assigning is not clear.  For the rest of it, the biggest percentage corresponds to category V (protected landscape, terrestrial or marine), the most generalized in mediterranean environments, followed by category II (national park).

As protected spaces have been declared, advances in the development of planning and management instruments have been made. 40% of national parks, 80% of natural parks and 36% of reserves are under the planning of a PORN (Spanish acronym for Plan de Ordenacion de Recursos Naturales, which is Zoning Plan of Natural Resources). There are still 6 natural parks and half of natural parks and reserves that do not have a PRUG (Spanish acronym for Plan Rector de Uso y Gestión, which means Master Plan for Use and Management). In the 2008-2009 period almost 140.000 hectares the surface under PORN, and 186.000 hectares the surface with management plan has been increased.

The legal proclamation of a protected space and the development of planning instruments are a necessary but not sufficient condition.  Management requires to count on the adequate means to comply with the legal objetives and the social and political commitments.

The management costs are mostly financed by the competent public administrations. There is still little experience in the use of innovating financial mecanisms, but it is predictable that in a short period of time they are developed to be able to comply with the growing management need, in particular associated to the development of the Natural Network 2000.

The protected spaces receive at least 26 millions of visitors. Only the group of the 14 national parks receive more than 10 millions of visitors. At least there is 225 visitor centers, besides 270 information points. It is estimated that the center receives between 18 and 20% of the total visits to the protected space.

The quality systems in management take on more and more relevance.  In Spain they have credited 28 parks with the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism, from a total of 75 european parks. Up to the end of 2009, 95 companies had adhered to the Spanish credited parks. The development of the Q for quality of the public use services is also very promising, with 25 natural protected certified spaces. Another 22 protected spaces participate in the system in its different application phases with the purpose of being credited in a near future. In the 2008-2009 period, 13 parks with the CETS and 3 with the Q for quality have been credited.

All the follow-up indexes of protected spaces development show a positive evolution.

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The Castilla del Oro would have a tourism where not only the body will rest

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PASCUAL MONTANES; PRESIDENT OF CASTILLA DEL ORO, PANAMA

“The Castilla del Oro would have a tourism where not only the body will rest”

“There are two ways to develop the tourism. The tourism is always developed with foreign investment. We all know big chains that arrive to a certain place and get established in a short period time. But that is the tourism that is classified as sun and beach. It’s a purely vacation tourism where only the body rests and indirectly the mind, spirit and in other sensibilities, the soul rests” said Pascual Montanes, president of the Castilla del Oro en Panama Foundation.

“We want to offer to the tourist that comes to Panama, a path of spirituality. We have discovered that the first Catholic Church on the American continent is located in Nata de los Caballeros, which was the capital of Castilla del Oro. Our motto for all tourists that want to come to Castilla del Oro is “The route of Santiago does not end in Compostela”. Does not end in Spain”, said Pascual Montanes.

Nata de los Caballeros Church in Panama.

Santiago Apostol in Nata de los Caballeros in Panama.

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Donoso looks into the future with optimism

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Encouraged by the events that the tourism projects in Panama, rural and remote communities like the district of Donoso look into the future optimistically, thanks to the boost that the government and the private companies give, in infrastructure works just as in projects that include their residents.

 

“We are thinking of a huge development for the district of Donoso”, stated the province of Colon’s governor, Pedro Rios, before the presence of the president of Castilla del Oro Foundation in Spain, the Duke of Veraguas Cristobal Colon de Carvajal, and the general director of the public companies of the Autonomous Extremadura Region in Spain, Jaime Ruiz Peña.

 

With the Caribbean Sea and the mouth of the Chagres River as a background, Rios and Ruiz Peña, resolved with a gentlemen’s agreement, to restore the San Lorenzo fort, before the Duke of Veraguas, who acted as witness of honor.

 

“We have a great potential development over there in Donoso. We have the miner (Petaquilla Gold, S. A.) , from where the support comes from to support the Castilla del Oro Foundation; that is contributing and will continue to contribute with a bunch of resources for these sectors”, expressed Rios.

 

With an extension of 1,827.4 square kilometers, the district of Donoso is located in Costa Abajo of Colon, and bounds with the provinces of Cocle and Veraguas.

 

It has a low population density, a little above 5.5 inhabitants per square kilometer, and its head city is the vicinity of Miguel de la Borda, where a rural road reaches. Because of this, a lot of the commercial activities are done through the means of water, while the agriculture is very rudimentary.

 

Surrounded by the breath-taking forest zones, rivers and beaches of crystal clear waters, Donoso is a district still to be discovered, where the potable water, electricity, phones and the medical attention are very limited.

 

During his recent visit to Panama, the committee headed by the Duke of Veragua visited the province of Colon, where the illustrious visitor received the key to the city of Colon; besides being declared Meritorious Son.

 

He also participated of a walk until he got to the monument of Admiral Christopher Columbus, where he placed a floral tribute; just as the delivery of a donation to a group of native kuna Indians for them to buy a sewing machine and fabrics to make the clothing that they wear and that they offer tourists.

 

The visit to Portobelo and San Lorenzo forts, where the heritage of old glories of the Spanish Empire is still perceived, captured the attention of Duke of Veragua and Ruiz Peña.

 

It was in San Lorenzo where Ruiz Peña spoke about turning this fort into one of the main tourism attractions of Panama and the Caribbean; after the old structures have been restored to offer lodging, artistic events and the sale of souvenirs.

 

All this, looking forward to more than 200 thousand tourists that disembark at the Colon 2000 cruise port, whom in the future, touristic attractions in Donoso will be also be offered to

 

The Castilla del Oro Foundation’s intention is to favor the sustainable development of these Panamanian regions with the objective of generating riches and wellbeing to its inhabitants, for now as in the future. For this, they will turn this region into a cultural tourism attraction of first class, and provide it with the necessary infrastructures to obtain this.

 

With this first objective of recovering this region within the international tourism map, the entity will promote “La Castilla del Oro (Golden Castile)” as a place where visitors will travel through history and the footsteps of the adventurers of the XVI century and become the new discoverer of the XXI century.  In this region, heaven on earth awaits, a fortunate land where jungle, history and beach embrace one another; a redoubt of civilization and culture, where the time has no hurry to advance and that remains unshakeable as time goes by.

 

The entity will recover the historic memory of this region, putting popular traditions into effect, first nations just as the Spanish ones: from the music and the dances, passing through the crafts, regional clothing, religious rituals and in general, all the folklore and the character that have built the idiosyncrasy of these people.

 

On the other hand, it will promote a series of infrastructure as: CONVENTION CENTER, HOTEL, THEME PARKS, MOTELS, among others that will improve the quality of life of the tourist’s stay, just as daily life of its inhabitants.

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Richard Fifer

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Mining Industry and Human Resources

Skilled human resource for the mining industry is in many cases difficult to find, as development and innovation of the mining industry continues to increase in demand as noted by Richard Fifer. College students seem to be less engaged in mining than a several years ago. In contrast, experienced personnel in the industry are commonly retiring due to different reasons deteriorating the already worsening condition.

Aware of this current situation, mining companies are presently working hard training their employees and focusing on employee retention. Many university programs also provide students with certificates, diplomas and degrees related to the mining industries. Since mining is made up of a great number of disciplines, the training is highly advanced as stated by Richard Fifer. Some of the fields and courses taught at mining industry related institutions are Dragline Training, Haul Truck Training, Shovel Training, Wheeled Loader Training, Long haul Training, Continuous Miner Training, Roof Bolter Training etc.

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RICHARD FIFER

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Community Relationships

Petaquilla operates in a developing area and is considered a friendly and collaborative partner with the communities and populations in its environment. It therefore applies a model of openness and transparency in its relations, as well as on environmental and social issues.

We believe that we must combine our business objectives with the aspirations and hopes of the communities near our operations. For this reason we implement communication processes as indispensable tools in building relationships with the community. We seek to improve the lives of our neighbors, both in health and education, infrastructure and economic development, while always acting responsibly, working together, and seeking the active participation of the Government, NGOs and, above all, the community.

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Richard Fifer and Gold

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Petaquilla Gold: Driver of Change

The mining industry with companies like Petaquilla Gold has dramatically and positively changed the social landscape in Panama. The diversity and intensity of its effects are well represented in the neighboring communities that have profited through education, infrastructure and economic improvements.

Significant advances have been identified as result of Petaquilla´s hard work to benefit the communities. Evidence exists of substantial flows of revenue into Panama’s Central provinces are thanks to the mining industry. These have come in the form of compensation, wages, royalties and business contracts.

For the past twenty years, developments in the mining industry in Panama have created money, jobs and development for population near mining projects. The education and health sector in these villages have also noticed improvement through the building of health centers and classrooms. A positive change of growth for the community are a reality due to the hard work and social responsibility programs that have taken place.

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Richard Fifer

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Richard Fifer.
Family Tips for Miners

Working for a mining company, implies flying to and from home to work ALL the time. Here´s a bit of useful advice for miners, partners and family members.

In this era of modern technology, communication is in some cases a challenge during times of distance separation. For instance couples might find themselves feeling frustrated or concerned because problems are shared, but neither person can effectively help each other personally. It is important to realize that even though tools such as the internet and cellular phones exist, the quality and form of communication is different from talking to one another face-to-face.

It is important to also take into consideration that even though arriving back home is an exciting and happy experience, it is normal to need time for readjustment and it is normal it to be a stressful situation and if managed appropriately can lead to stronger relationships.
Remember it is only natural that some things in your return home may have changed. Roles could have changed, partners more independent and the children will probably be more grown up. Keep in mind perfection does not exist and it is usually in the eye of the beholder. Understand hopes, ideas and expectations might be different and this is all a normal part of the situation.

Talk, talk, talk, but must importantly listen to each other. Exchanging thoughts and feelings is essential for relationship growth.

Understand and accept the positive things your family has accomplished during your time away. If possible, limit criticism to the minimum.

Respect personal space and be patient.

If you have children, take your time and slowly to adapt to new rules and routines that might have been set by the partner living at home with them.

The most important advice of all: remind them how much you love and how important they are to you no matter how much distance or time apart you spend from each other.

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