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Petaquilla Has NOT Suspended Production!
I sent a quick email to my contact in Petaquilla’s IR department this morning to confirm the status of production and also sent him the link of the Panama-Guide.com article indicating production had been suspended.
Here is the reply from PTQ this morning:
We are producing gold at this time and the government is satisfied with all field inspections. Water levels in all storage facilities are at normal levels.
I take this to mean that PTQ is still producing gold and mining operations have NOT been suspended. I would not take many of these articles seriously, as none of them have yet proven to be true.
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Seams like PTQ needs to issue a clarification.
For those interested, here comes an update on OGC:
The Q2-report was a disappointment and the stock suffered badly during the summer doldrums, but we are now back on track (3.23) to our 5 CAD target for the year.
Heavy rains during one week as well as lower than expected grades accounted for the high cc of 550, and a one off tax lowered EPS from 5.2 to 3.5 cents. The biggest share holder Baker Steel was forced to decrease their holding as well.
The second half of 2010 will have higher grades and production, with cc as low as 460? EPS should rise to 10 cents for Q4 (Au @1200). Expect Didipio (1.65m reserve) to be a trigger.
Jay Taylor and Sprott have promoted OGC recently.
OGC and ORV are my biggest holdings.
FYI I had a few questions that I sent to Tom B. @ PTQ yesterday and here was his reply.
1) Is the mine up and running now after this issue with the overflow pond? How many days was the mine shut down?
Tom: The Authorities were at the minesite on Aug. 20th and gave us approval to resume production after a 3 day delay because of heavy rains.
2) What’s the status of the Deutsche Bank deal? Has it closed/when will it close?
Are the Panamanian banks still being worked?
Tom: Deutsche Bank is waiting on a document from the Panamanian government, which should arrive this week. The Panamanian banks and 2 other sources are being worked for the remainder.
3) I read the annual report today and saw nothing in it about when the Company expects to turn a profit. Is there a Company time-frame on when that could be expected?
Tom: We expect to be profitable in 2011 if all goes well.
4) A producing gold mine shouldn’t be trading @.42 a share. Are the problems at the mine holding the shares down?
Tom: I think the selling is coming from some fund managers who have become impatient with the slow progress towards earnings. The mill is running at 100% of it’s current capacity of 3000 tons a day.
I’m sending this mainly to clarify that the mine apparently was down for 3 days. It’s now back in operation. Since, they annouced the signing of the Deut.Bank deal we have heard nothing else. I think that since the supposed overflow spill and the bank deal happened so close together this document the government is sending to D.B. is probably their clearance that the mine is approved to go ahead and continue operations going forward, but that’s just my guess. Hopefully then the D.B. deal can be finalized.
My biggest concern going forward with these guys are mine operations. I know they are still working some of the “bugs” out, but some of the incidents, including not having the secondary tailing pond ready to go, were very avoidable and a big oversight by management IMO. I hope they can eventually get their act together.
@John Lewis
Things are shaping up…the DB deal is done, production is increasing, production issues being resolved. If they can get a solid qtr of production or two with minimum issues… we should start seeing some fireworks.