2
maintenance by November 1999 and was closed by March
2000 when the average spot gold price fell below $290/oz.
Veragold has been working to reopen Minas Santa Rosa.
Unfortunately, the previous owner left in the middle of the
night without a word to the employees or the community.
Final payrolls were left unpaid and much of the property
and records were destroyed during community riots. The
only physical drill core left from the previous operation was
sliced into coasters found in some of the local taverns.
Almost a decade later, the property was acquired by
land developers who were originally looking to provide
more housing opportunities in the Interior of Panama.
When they learned more about the history of the project
and met with the community, they set up card tables at
the site and paid the back wages and severances of former
employees still living in the area.
Political and Community Committees were formed
so Veragold Management could meet regularly with the
representatives of the 8 districts surrounding the project.
On November 7, 2013, the National Assembly of Panama
approved Law N° 92, whereby the mining concession con-
tract for the extraction of gold and other metallic miner-
als granted by the government of Panama to Veragold
Corporation was elevated to a Contract Law. (Law No
92 was published in the Official Gazette No 27410). This
allowed Veragold to control all minerals within a 50 km
radius of the original concession. The work that Veragold
had been doing to date with the local community was pay-
ing off. When the vote was held for the Contract Law,
nearly 400 members from the local Canazas community
showed up and picketed in favor of Veragold Mining.
Currently the project is fully permitted for mining and
mineral processing. The Santa Rosa project surface rights
and mining concession rights are adequate to support a
future gold mining and processing operation at the project
area. The selection of processes and operation have been
selected.
SITE AND COMMUNITIES CONCERNS
The Mina Santa Rosa mineral inventory consists of the Alto
de la Mina (ADLM), Mina Santa Rosa (SR), and Cerro
Otero (CO) mineralized zones and the residual gold in the
Leach Pad material. The low-grade stockpiles left by the
previous operators have not been tested yet. The mineral
resources for the three mineralized zones were developed
with the In-Pit resources in the three pit areas showed a
total of nearly 1M ounces of gold. Since silver is in a 4.5:1
ratio to the gold there are approximately 4.5M ounces of
silver. The historic heap leach which still contains consider-
able gold. Upon drilling the heap leach it was determined
that there was an additional 109,000 ounces of gold present
that had already been mined and crushed and sitting on the
surface awaiting processing.
Because of the close proximity of the mine to the town
of Canazas, it is important that Veragold become part
of the community and have their needs in mind. When
meeting with the community leaders, the major commu-
nity concerns were the risks associated with cyanide and
tailings dams. Even though all permit approvals for a heap
leach process were in hand, Veragold initiated a new design
iteration to evaluate other alternatives that could possibly
address these community fears. In 2013, Veragold tested
10 composite samples from the Leach Pad and drilled 5 PQ
size holes to provide samples of the in-situ mineralization
for metallurgical testing. Mineralogical work was under-
taken on samples of sulfide mineralization by McClelland
Laboratories. The main objective of this preliminary test
work was to determine the best recovery for gold and silver
using gravity concentration, sulfide flotation treatment or
cyanide processing.
For both the leach pad and in-situ material flotation
showed the best metallurgical results where gold recoveries,
in general, were above 90 percent. The testing also validated
that heap leaching was not the correct choice for the site.
It was decided that flotation would be the major process to
recover the gold and silver from both the pit ores and the
heap leach material. This gave Veragold a solution that pro-
duced the best metallurgical results and one that eliminated
most all cyanide consumption. This was beneficial to the
community’s needs.
Production of a tailing product that could be used
in the generation of paste was a more difficult problem.
Testing was implemented at both McClelland Labs in coop-
eration with Pocock Industrial. The flotation process was
maintenance by November 1999 and was closed by March
2000 when the average spot gold price fell below $290/oz.
Veragold has been working to reopen Minas Santa Rosa.
Unfortunately, the previous owner left in the middle of the
night without a word to the employees or the community.
Final payrolls were left unpaid and much of the property
and records were destroyed during community riots. The
only physical drill core left from the previous operation was
sliced into coasters found in some of the local taverns.
Almost a decade later, the property was acquired by
land developers who were originally looking to provide
more housing opportunities in the Interior of Panama.
When they learned more about the history of the project
and met with the community, they set up card tables at
the site and paid the back wages and severances of former
employees still living in the area.
Political and Community Committees were formed
so Veragold Management could meet regularly with the
representatives of the 8 districts surrounding the project.
On November 7, 2013, the National Assembly of Panama
approved Law N° 92, whereby the mining concession con-
tract for the extraction of gold and other metallic miner-
als granted by the government of Panama to Veragold
Corporation was elevated to a Contract Law. (Law No
92 was published in the Official Gazette No 27410). This
allowed Veragold to control all minerals within a 50 km
radius of the original concession. The work that Veragold
had been doing to date with the local community was pay-
ing off. When the vote was held for the Contract Law,
nearly 400 members from the local Canazas community
showed up and picketed in favor of Veragold Mining.
Currently the project is fully permitted for mining and
mineral processing. The Santa Rosa project surface rights
and mining concession rights are adequate to support a
future gold mining and processing operation at the project
area. The selection of processes and operation have been
selected.
SITE AND COMMUNITIES CONCERNS
The Mina Santa Rosa mineral inventory consists of the Alto
de la Mina (ADLM), Mina Santa Rosa (SR), and Cerro
Otero (CO) mineralized zones and the residual gold in the
Leach Pad material. The low-grade stockpiles left by the
previous operators have not been tested yet. The mineral
resources for the three mineralized zones were developed
with the In-Pit resources in the three pit areas showed a
total of nearly 1M ounces of gold. Since silver is in a 4.5:1
ratio to the gold there are approximately 4.5M ounces of
silver. The historic heap leach which still contains consider-
able gold. Upon drilling the heap leach it was determined
that there was an additional 109,000 ounces of gold present
that had already been mined and crushed and sitting on the
surface awaiting processing.
Because of the close proximity of the mine to the town
of Canazas, it is important that Veragold become part
of the community and have their needs in mind. When
meeting with the community leaders, the major commu-
nity concerns were the risks associated with cyanide and
tailings dams. Even though all permit approvals for a heap
leach process were in hand, Veragold initiated a new design
iteration to evaluate other alternatives that could possibly
address these community fears. In 2013, Veragold tested
10 composite samples from the Leach Pad and drilled 5 PQ
size holes to provide samples of the in-situ mineralization
for metallurgical testing. Mineralogical work was under-
taken on samples of sulfide mineralization by McClelland
Laboratories. The main objective of this preliminary test
work was to determine the best recovery for gold and silver
using gravity concentration, sulfide flotation treatment or
cyanide processing.
For both the leach pad and in-situ material flotation
showed the best metallurgical results where gold recoveries,
in general, were above 90 percent. The testing also validated
that heap leaching was not the correct choice for the site.
It was decided that flotation would be the major process to
recover the gold and silver from both the pit ores and the
heap leach material. This gave Veragold a solution that pro-
duced the best metallurgical results and one that eliminated
most all cyanide consumption. This was beneficial to the
community’s needs.
Production of a tailing product that could be used
in the generation of paste was a more difficult problem.
Testing was implemented at both McClelland Labs in coop-
eration with Pocock Industrial. The flotation process was