Petaquilla Minerals delays its first pour: surprising for Reuters readers, not for IKN readers

When we last caught up with Panama's answer to Madoff, Petaquilla Minerals (PTQ.to) was claiming to all and sundry that they had all their environmental permits in place and that they'd be making first pour in December. They even got the local Reuters patsy reporter to publish that PTQ would "start production before the end of the year". Hmmmm; it seems that since then the PTQ.to IR dep't has forgotten to update its valued and loved shareholders on the latest developments at the company, so allow me to fill in the details:

• In a bizarre twist, PTQ.to is now appealing AGAINST the environment permit that it was so loudly trumpeting just a couple of weeks ago. The Panama News reports how PTQ is appealing against 14 of the 40 extra requirements that this blog mentioned in previous posts. Remember this was the same piece of paper that PTQ.to trumpeted to the North as its ticket to production and riches. Funny how they've been keeping knowledge of its own protests against the ANAM permit away from the investment community, innit?
  

• It's not December any more, folks. According to PTQ's Engineering Veep on December 12th, the first ounce is now going to be poured "in three months' time". Shareholders of PTQ shouldn't be too shocked with this "unforeseen delay", though; we're talking about the company that assured everybody it would be producing in the first quarter of 2008.

All this doesn't take away from the basic facts, not least of which is that PTQ at Molejon doesn't have a tailings dump and a tailings dump is not something that you can just whip together in a couple of weeks, or even a couple of months. But the good news is that if you're still holding PTQ.to in your portfolio you still have time to dump the stock, as CEO Richard Fifer continues desperately to prop up his stock with multiple buys. Here are the latest trades as per Canadian Insider:

Dec 15/08	Dec 12/08	Fifer, Richard Glenn Fifer Carles	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Acquisition in the public market	27,500	$0.440
Dec 15/08	Dec 12/08	Fifer, Richard Glenn Fifer Carles	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Acquisition in the public market	17,000	$0.440
Dec 15/08	Dec 12/08	Fifer, Richard Glenn Fifer Carles	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Acquisition in the public market	2,000	$0.435
Dec 15/08	Dec 11/08	Fifer, Richard Glenn Fifer Carles	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Acquisition in the public market	4,500	$0.450
Dec 15/08	Dec 11/08	Fifer, Richard Glenn Fifer Carles	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Acquisition in the public market	24,000	$0.450
Dec 15/08	Dec 11/08	Fifer, Richard Glenn Fifer Carles	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Acquisition in the public market	5,000	$0.440
Dec 15/08	Dec 11/08	Fifer, Richard Glenn Fifer Carles	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Acquisition in the public market	2,500	$0.435
Dec 15/08	Dec 10/08	Fifer, Richard Glenn Fifer Carles	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Acquisition in the public market	500	$0.500
Dec 15/08	Dec 10/08	Fifer, Richard Glenn Fifer Carles	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Acquisition in the public market	20,500	$0.500
Dec 15/08	Dec 10/08	Fifer, Richard Glenn Fifer Carles	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Acquisition in the public market	9,500	$0.500

At this rate Fifer will be able to OPA the company before it ever produces gold, as by that time he'll be holding all the shares himself!

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