There are two types of headaches in the mining game; start-up headaches and production headaches. The first set of headaches are painful as paperwork and approvals just never seem to end. The second set of headaches are painful but perfectly pleasant as product rolls out and profits roll in.
Finding a company that has been through the first set and is ready to happily enjoy the second is one of the best ways to invest in an exploration and development mining company. An investor who can find a mining company that is past the exploration phase and in the production phase is an investor who will profit nicely, when commodity prices behave.
Petaquilla Minerals Ltd., an exploration and development mining company, works to find and extract gold resources primarily in Panama. The company has been working to delineate and define this particular find for some time and expects its first gold pour in Q3 2008.
To say that the company has done its due diligence with regard to its Petaquilla mine property would be an understatement. Testing has been refined and refined again so that the company understands exactly what is located at the site and where. In this regard, the company felt that spinning off the mines copper reserves into Petaquilla Copper in 2006 was the wisest move to optimize the site.
It is, however, the sites gold reserves that are of primary interest to the company, and rightfully so. The company’s latest estimates place gold reserves at: 447, 879 oz. measured resources, 161,379 indicated resources, 506,295 inferred resources. A high grade area of 1.667 mm tones grading at 5.0 grams per/tonne with a minimum cutoff of 2.5 grams per/tonne also is present. A further trench zone has indicated additional possible resources.
From a general perspective, Petaquilla Minerals has this project wired and is ready to capitalize on years of work. Its location in relation to the Panama Canal is ideal for shipping to world markets and onsite processing equipment is adequate to anticipated output levels. Infrastructure has also been completed with roads built to a 70-ton specification.
Although commodity gold prices have risen in recent quarters (only to retreat as US dollar and oil prices look for a firm place to trade), the company expects the overall 60-year life expectancy of the mine to produce outstanding returns for the investor. Given that the hard work has been completed and product is ready to ship, Petaquilla Minerals looks to be in solid shape to profit for some time to come.
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