Supreme Court Sanctions $1,934,694 Fine For Unmitigated Mining

Panama’s Supreme Court has issued its verdict in the Environment v. Mining Company case:  Minera Panama and Petaquilla Gold should now have a $1,934,694 fine to pay for razing more that 50 hectares of trees and the extracting minerals without the proper mitigation methods.

An investigation by Panama’s Environmental Authority found that Petaquilla Gold’s activities did affect zones in Cerro Petaquilla and the Molejones, San Juan and Turbe rivers.

The maximum fine that Panama’s Environmental Authority may impose is $1 million, however, the balance accounts for the damage done to the ecosystem and legal fees.

Morgan and Morgan, the law firm representing the mining companies, sustained in its petition that the fine is impossible as the companies have done nothing within the alleged timeframe within the government mining concession, La Prensa reports.

A final Morgan and Morgan petition is still pending.

According to a November 18 Petaquilla Gold news release, the Panamanian government is encouraging Petaquilla to lead the way to a socially and environmentally conscious mining industry in Panama, and:

“The Molejon gold mine is currently in its final stages of full commissioning. Since testing of production commenced resulting in the Company’s first gold pour on April 7, 2009, the mine has produced a total of 25,699 ounces of gold.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 9:28 am and is filed under It's Not Easy Being Green. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.