Miners pin hopes on Torrijos

Panama's mining chamber Camipa hopes the government of President Martín Torrijos, who takes office September 2, will support sector development, Camipa VP Gustavo Pinilla told BNamericas. The chamber is establishing contact with the new authorities. For now, Camipa's priority lies in resuming talks on the new mining law, which has been suspended in congress due to the change in government. "We want to continue [discussions] and not waste the great effort we have made in the last few years," Pinilla said. The chamber should have a better idea of the new officials' stance within a month and a half, and Pinilla believes that the new government is interested in organizing the mining sector. "When it comes to mining, all governments are very cautious," he said. The change in government seems to be a positive step for mining as the government "is open to [mining] development," the commerce and industry ministry's mineral resources director, Francia de Sierra, told BNamericas. The new law discussions being put on hold have not interfered with sector performance, she said, as "there is optimism about [the law's] advantages, which has brought on many new requests for gold exploration." Camipa's Pinilla agrees there are increased mining requests for exploration in the country, due to both considerably improved metal prices - especially for gold - and the fact that the new law is being discussed. Large mining companies are becoming more interested in Panama because of those two factors, he said, "and that is what we want to communicate to the new authorities." There are large gold projects found in Panama, such as Canada-based RNC Gold's (TSX: RNC) Cerro Quema and the Faja de Oro project owned by Colorado-based Calais Resources (OTC BB: CAAUF), which in September 2003 announced the opening of a corporate office in the country to manage company operations throughout Latin America. With respect to copper, the Petaquilla project belonging to Vancouver-based Adrian Resources (TSX: ADL) is one of the country's largest.