Richard Fifer

The San Lorenzo has stories of battles for treasures between Spanish and English, of the taken by force by pirate Francis Drake, who was later repelled by the Spanish, said the director of the Public Enterprises of the Autonomous Region of Extremadura, while remembering part of the history kept intact within the structures of this magical and mythical place.

According to Ruiz Pena, each corner of San Lorenzo is a piece of history, since this stones speak of times of glory and defeat, at the same time he stated feeling at Fort San Lorenzo absolutely welcomed by the ancient walls which probably contain “magic, history, and enchantment”, says Ruiz.

The director of the Public Enterprises of Extremadura was part of the expedition led by the Duke of Veragua, Cristobal Colon de Carvajal, president of the Castilla del Oro Foundation in Spain and its Panamanian counterpart, chaired by Dr. Pascual Montanes, who, led by Panamanian entrepreneur Richard Fifer-Carles, seek to boost the rural tourism development in the central provinces of the country.

The Duke of Veragua Cristobal Colon of Carvajal said that the main branch of the direct descendants of the admiral Cristobal Colon are in Spain and seen his death they perfectly reachable since there are published books and authentic documents about the descendants.

Colon of Carvajal, president of the Castilla del Oro Foundation, led by the businessman Richard Fifer Carles during his visit too panama too promote the activities of this foundation that is looking to promote the rural tourism in the country, said that he is the tenth descendant of Cristobal Colon and that the descendants of the admiral since his death are perfectly registered and that there are published books about the descendants of Colon.

He pointed out that within the immense tree that is spread out trough different country of America, Spain maintains the main branch and that the descendant of that main branch is the most direct one of each generation and that take the title of Duke of Vergua, also known as Admiral of India or discoverers of America, Marques of Jamaica and Duke of la Vieja.

The objective of the Foundation Castilla del Oro, organization created by the engineer Richard Fifer- Carles, is to promote the development of tourism in the rural communities of the central provinces of Panama, so they have a development that so far has been reduced to agriculture and livestock, many of subsistence.

So explained the international president of the Foundation Castilla del Oro, the Duke of Veragua, Cristobal Colon de Carvajal; who said that this organization was created thinking of the tourist development, as a mean to boost the level of life of the inhabitants of the rural communities in the Provinces of Colon, Colce, Herrera, Los Santos and Veraguas.

“We are talking about a tourist project and strategically coordinated. We intend to launch an entire plan based in the tourism which would generate jobs, attracting tourist, to impulse the developments that it’s promoted”, said the Duke of Veraguas, who added that to makes this vision a reality, they have already located several spots of tourist interest with the end to enhance its appeal.

Forestal engineer Enrique Meléndez in charge of the Petaquilla Gold. S.A. company soil revegetacion project, informed that this program, that consists in the recovery of explored areas with the sowing of native forestal species, endemics and  leguminous, like beans have provided positive results.

As proof of that the engineer Meléndez indicated that the leguminous are used in the dining room to feed the employees, as a certifying proof that the soils are not contaminated.

Meléndez informed that this innovative program is part of the company’s policy that leads the impresario Richard Fifer- Carles and the commitment acquired with the Panamanian State to revegetate more than double the hectares that are explored by the mining project.

Petaquilla Gold, S. A., under the direction of engineer Richard Fifer-Carles, plans to produce 50,000 ounces of gold in 2012, wrote the international consultant in economic geology, Stuart Redwood, in the article “The Sun Rises on Panamanian Mining”, published in Planet magazine which is edited by the Mining Chamber of Panama (CAMIPA).

“In November the company (Petaquilla Gold, SA) also reported that it will develop a leaching operation in 2011, projected to produce 50,000 ounces of gold in 2012,” said Redwood.

He added that this operation will be based on additional resources of 23 million tons, at a rate of 0.26 g/t of measured gold, 73.7 Mt. at 0.19 g/t inferred for a total of 1.14 million ounces.

The next step that the Castilla del Oro Foundation needs to take in the making of the recovery blueprints for the San Francisco de la Montaña’s church tower to present it in the meeting with the Historical Heritage Department of the National Culture Institute (INAC) is to configure the recovery project’s draft, which should incorporate even a historical memoir that supports the type of intervention recovery and integration that will be done, and the descriptive methodology with its merits and the positive aspects of the structural intervention to be carried out.

These requests were presented by the deputy director of INAC’s National Heritage to engineers of Castilla del Oro Foundation, led by engineer Richard Fifer Carles, during a meeting held to review progress in the national historic heritage’s enhancement which also involved the participation of the Panamanian Tourism Authority’s Tourist Development Department.

Stanziola recommended to Castilla del Oro Foundation that it will have to present the survey sheets with some elevations and part of the final intervention proposal’s schematic sketch at the next meeting.

Petaquilla Gold, S. A.’s Risk Prevention and Environment manager, Leonel Solis, said the Lifestyle Project, which seeks to substantially improve working conditions for company workers, is an inspiring initiative that benefits thousands of people working in the Molejón mine.

“It’s a very inspiring task and it will be dedicated to improving their quality of life with the funds that the company has earmarked for the project. But, in addition to this, it will set an example as a standard for colleagues who come to work at the company in the future,” said Solis.

The Lifestyle Project, run by Petaquilla Gold, S. A. under the leadership of businessman Richard Fifer Carles, has served as a flagship for many other initiatives related to the ecological management of mining projects.

Madrid, September 2011

Castilla del Oro Foundation desires that the inhabitants of the Coclé, Veraguas, Herrera, Los Santos and Colón provinces be the main beneficiaries of this initiative, the economic factors as well as the social ones. The projects promoted will become a new source of riches for the zone, a motor for employment and stimulus for the entrepreneurship spirit of the neighbors, which will be able to lead small business projects and contribute to the individual and general well being, now and in the future. The work will be in connection with Spiritual Tourism, original idea of Engineer Richard Fifer – Carles, as a sustainable development model in the region.

The Foundation will raise itself as the facilitator so the inhabitants of the XXI century Castilla del Oro can convert their homes into touristic lodging, attain commercial establishments, leisure related  activities or study to become proffesional tourist guides.

The Panama Infrastructure Development company (PDI, for its acronym in Spanish) has turned into the main unskilled labor getter in the areas adjacent to the Molejon mining project that Petaquilla Gold, S. A. works on under the leadership of engineer Richard Fifer – Carles.

This is how the executive vice-president of PDI stated it, Rafael Reyes, who added that the company has employees that work almost permanently on the project’s activities, which are constantly trained through courses taught by INADET, from other government entities and Non-Governmental Organizations.

In this sense, Reyes said, besides hiring personnel, PDI takes care of improving quality and labor’s qualification through equipment maintenance courses, equipment operators, up to training them in kitchen labor.