Panamanian park shows Adrian’s environmental commitment

Adrian Resources (TSE) and its largest shareholder, Min- America, recently joined Panamanian dignitaries to inaugurate El Cope Park, situated next door to Adrian’s Petaquilla property.

The dedication was held in the small community of El Cope, in the central province of Cocle. Local residents of all ages turned out for the event, which featured entertainment by several talented youngsters. The highlight was the cutting of the ribbon to dedicate the rain forest park, a ceremony attended by MinAmerica President (and Adrian director) Richard Fifer and Alberto McKay, the general director of Panama’s environmental agency. The park comprises 25,275 hectares and will preserve rain forest habitat that is rapidly disappearing in Panama. Inhabitants of rural areas routinely use slash-and-burn techniques to allow for subsistence farming and maintenance of small livestock herds. But because the soil is poor, these rural Panamanians will frequently pull up stakes and move on to a new area that will be readied for habitation by cutting and burning all vegetation.

Adrian is also participating in a government-sponsored program to reforest these denuded areas, including small areas found within its land package situated roughly 15 km from the Caribbean coast. The goal is to employ local residents as foresters and provide economic as well as environmental benefits to rural regions.

El Cope is a park with special significance, as it covers the headwaters of all rivers in the area that flow to either the Pacific or the Atlantic Ocean. “The name means `where waters gather,'” Fifer explained. “We want to maintain the integrity of the headwaters of all these rivers, and this will be an important part of any future mine development planning.”

Local support for the Petaquilla project appears to be strong, both in Panama City and in small communities nearer the project that stand to benefit from the establishment of a new industry.

As part of its corporate policy, MinAmerica dedicates about 2% of its budget toward social initiatives, such as providing support for health and education. “We have provided paint and materials to elementary schools in the regions where we are active,” Fifer said. “We’ve also donated medical and surgical supplies and inoculated over 3,000 local residents.” Such policies are well-received by local residents, Fifer said, citing the positive response to a recent initiative by Greenstone Resources to provide water purification facilities near its gold project.

Being socially and environmentally progressive is good business for mining companies looking to be active in the long term in Panama, Fifer said, adding that mining has the potential to become one of the top industries rather than occupying fourth place, as it currently does, after bananas, services and shrimp.

So far, environmental groups do not appear to be opposing mine development plans at Petaquilla or elsewhere in the country. In fact, one of the largest such groups, based in Panama City, is planning to reopen a former-producing gold mine (the Cana concession) within a park designated as an United Nations World Heritage site, near the Colombia border.

“This may be unusual in North America, but not here,” Fifer told The Northern Miner. “We are not as wealthy a country (as Canada) and this environmental group intends to pay for preserving this region by mining a gold deposit in the park. They have brought in good technical help and intend to operate an environmentally sound mining operation.”