I ALWAYS look forward to reading the latest Economic Rant. I know its pessimistic but why shouldn’t it be, what we are facing IS negative. I just wish there was a way to contact the author…

I like Mike Maloney and really enjoyed his book on Gold/Silver. I wanted to order his new DVD but its only (currently) shipping to the US and Canada so I can’t order it ;-(

I also REALLY enjoy reading “Conversations with Casey” which is a free weekly newsletter I receive via email.

1) Is the mine up and running now after this issue with the overflow pond? How many days was the mine shut down?
Tom: The Authorities were at the minesite on Aug. 20th and gave us approval to resume production after a 3 day delay because of heavy rains.

2) What’s the status of the Deutsche Bank deal? Has it closed/when will it close?
Are the Panamanian banks still being worked?
Tom: Deutsche Bank is waiting on a document from the Panamanian government, which should arrive this week. The Panamanian banks and 2 other sources are being worked for the remainder.

3) I read the annual report today and saw nothing in it about when the Company expects to turn a profit. Is there a Company time-frame on when that could be expected?
Tom: We expect to be profitable in 2011 if all goes well.

4) A producing gold mine shouldn’t be trading @.42 a share. Are the problems at the mine holding the shares down?
Tom: I think the selling is coming from some fund managers who have become impatient with the slow progress towards earnings. The mill is running at 100% of it’s current capacity of 3000 tons a day.

I’m sending this mainly to clarify that the mine apparently was down for 3 days. It’s now back in operation. Since, they annouced the signing of the Deut.Bank deal we have heard nothing else. I think that since the supposed overflow spill and the bank deal happened so close together this document the government is sending to D.B. is probably their clearance that the mine is approved to go ahead and continue operations going forward, but that’s just my guess. Hopefully then the D.B. deal can be finalized.

My biggest concern going forward with these guys are mine operations. I know they are still working some of the “bugs” out, but some of the incidents, including not having the secondary tailing pond ready to go, were very avoidable and a big oversight by management IMO. I hope they can eventually get their act together.

The Q2-report was a disappointment and the stock suffered badly during the summer doldrums, but we are now back on track (3.23) to our 5 CAD target for the year.

Heavy rains during one week as well as lower than expected grades accounted for the high cc of 550, and a one off tax lowered EPS from 5.2 to 3.5 cents. The biggest share holder Baker Steel was forced to decrease their holding as well.

The second half of 2010 will have higher grades and production, with cc as low as 460? EPS should rise to 10 cents for Q4 (Au @1200). Expect Didipio (1.65m reserve) to be a trigger.

Jay Taylor and Sprott have promoted OGC recently.

OGC and ORV are my biggest holdings.

Hey SW I wanted to thank you for introducing us to http://www.economicrant.com/. I’ve since subscribed to his newsletter and look forward to his utterly pessimistic and somewhat comical outlook on the economy.

By now I’m sure everyone knows who Mike Maloney is, but have you heard of Richard “The Mogambo Guru” Daughty? I found a great multi-video interview with Mike and Richard, I highly recommend it. One of my favorite lines is ‎”The FED is creating so much money it makes me dizzy, and it’s not the good kind of dizzy where you throw up and go back to the party for more beer and pizza, it’s the bad kind of dizzy”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pLwuq4hx60&feature=related

I noticed you listed about the negative PTQ rumors being spread around, so I assume you’re aware of lies that were levied on them from the environmentalists about the time of the DB news came out last week. That may have had some impact on the shares not moving IMO, but like I think you will agree PTQ is a longer-term story with positive earnings and the like. It will take some time but they’ll get there.

I don’t know if you saw this article on PTQ, but I found it to be very informative. Check it out over on the I-Hub PTQMF board. It is post #2787. Click on the link and read it, if you haven’t already seen it. What it I found very revealing was the part about Inmet building out their mine and how PTQ could be very instrumental in that cause. It made me think that Inmet could be a strong take-over candiadate for PTQ.

Thanks for your thoughts.
Best regards
John

See my comments on http://goldstockmania.com/petaquilla-minerals-financing-update-8-20-2010/