Panama rejects the acquisition by Inmet of Petaquilla Minerals’ concession

Petaquilla Minerals (TSX:PTQ) was up 7% to 61 cents this morning as the gold producer announced Wednesday that the Department of Mineral Resources of the Republic of Panama rejected a petition filed by Minera Panama, S.A., a subsidiary of Inmet Mining Corporation, in respect to the area known as the San Juan concession.

The authorities said it was “not presented within the appropriate time and is without merit.”

The San Juan concession is comprised of 11,145 hectares, which Petaquilla Minerals has the rights to explore as granted by the  Department of Mineral Resources in 2007.

Here the full press release:

Petaquilla Announces Government of Panama Resolution Rejecting Inmet’s Petition

Vancouver, BC: Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. (“Petaquilla” or the “Company”) announces that the Department of Mineral Resources of the Republic of Panama (the “Department”) has issued Resolution No. 2012-509, dated September 25, 2012, declaring that the opposition petition filed by Minera Panama, S.A., a subsidiary of Inmet Mining Corporation, in respect to the area known as the San Juan concession was not presented within the appropriate time and is without merit. The San Juan concession is comprised of 11,145 hectares. The Company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Petaquilla Minerals, S.A., was granted eligibility status rights by the Department in 2007 to the exploration area identified as the San Juan concession, filed as ARS-EXP (gold and others) No. 2003-32.

Minera Panama, S.A., in its writ of opposition addressed to the Department, had requested that the Department “immediately reject any and all applications for temporary or permanent concession requests for exploration and/or extraction of metal and/or non-metal on areas of Cerro Petaquilla affecting [the] Minera Panama, S.A. proposed development of the project…”.

Petaquilla continues to be committed to the development of all areas with mining potential to which its subsidiaries are entitled within the Petaquilla Mining District.

Resolution No. 2012-509 of the Department of Mineral Resources will be published on our website in its entirety in Spanish together with an English translation.