Yesterday, Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. announced that their infrastructure subsidiary, Panama Desarrollo de Infraestructuras, S.A. (PDI Panama), in a joint venture with Constructora MECO, was awarded a contract by Minera Panama, S.A. (MPSA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Inmet Mining Corporation, to construct a 3.9 kilometer road. The road will bypass Petaquilla Minerals’ Molejon gold mine and will provide MPSA with direct access to their copper project in the District of Donoso, Colon Province, Panama.
The joint venture between PDI Panama and Constructora MECO is part of a previously defined strategy to develop alliances designed to take competitive advantage of PDI Panama’s construction experience in the Petaquilla Mining District as well as their access to aggregate material at Molejon.
To develop their business in Panama further, PDI Panama has identified many opportunities. These include the development of mini hydro (run of river) plants, the construction of heap leach pads and roads and the manufacturing and sale of construction materials.
PDI Panama has entered into a contract to sell 1.8 million cubic meters of construction aggregate within the next five years to a Panamanian construction company. In addition, they are in the process of evaluating other agreements with a combined value of approximately US$72 million.
By the end of the first quarter of Fiscal 2012, Petaquilla Minerals Ltd.’s intention is to present a Plan of Arrangement (or some other tax favorable mechanism) for approval by the Toronto Stock Exchange and subsequent submission to the Company’s shareholders, to spin out the infrastructure arm of Petaquilla. As previously announced, the exchange ratio for the proposed future spin-out will be one share of PDI for every four shares of Petaquilla Minerals Ltd.
Headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. is a gold producer operating their gold processing plant at their 100 percent owned Molejon Gold Project in Panama. The Molejon mine site is in the south central area of Petaquilla’s 100 percent owned 842 square kilometer concession lands. This is a region known historically for gold content.
For more information visit: www.petaquilla.com
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