Panama Overview

Oro Gold’s land package is comprised of 5 individual properties covering more than 750 km2 in the Veraguas, Los Santos, Herrera, and Darien provinces of Central and Eastern Panama. These acquisitions represent an opportunity to pursue quality prospects in under-explored belts. The properties have moderate to excellent access and infrastructure, and are all located outside of indigenous lands, national parks, and tourist development areas. Identified through a systematic review of historical government and private industry data in conjunction with field investigations as part of the Company’s ongoing generative exploration activity.  All the properties host early stage exploration targets with substantial evidence of gold and copper anomalies.

All properties are characterized by highly anomalous gold geochemistry and rock and stream sediment samples.  The properties are located in belts that host significant epithermal precious metal and/or gold copper porphyry deposits and occurrences.

Two of the five properties (Juan Diaz Norte and Cerro Aguilucho) are located in the Azuero peninsula within a nearly 100 km long, east-west trending belt that is characterized by numerous occurrences of high-sulfidation type epithermal gold mineralization, and all are underlain by broad/extensive zones of strong advanced argillic alteration and local silicification, which is typical of high sulphidation-style mineralization.

The Sona property is a porphyry style target underlain by a broad gold-copper soil anomaly.

The Ambroya and Maje prospects are located in eastern Panama. These properties host some of the highest surface gold geochemistry in Oro Gold’s portfolio with areas known for placer mining.

Panama’s history of gold endowment and exploration dates back to the days of Columbus who was quoted as saying, “I have seen more gold in Panama in the last two days than I have seen in Hispañola in the last 4 years.” The USGS database of mineral occurrences records over 17 known placer occurrences and approximately 18 vein or disseminated occurrences in the western portion of the country. Historic Spanish gold workings pepper the countryside with an abundance of aboriginal gold artifacts attesting to a significant amount of pre-Columbian gold production. In addition to its gold appeal, Panama has excellent copper potential, hosting two of the largest undeveloped copper deposits in the world.

Panama is a modern democratic nation with a US-dollar based economy, regarded as both a stable market for foreign investment and an attractive retirement destination. It is one of the fastest growing countries in Latin America, as reflected in its #1 ranking in GDP per capita, over $3 billion in direct foreign investment in 2006, and the upcoming US$5.25 billion expansion of the Panama Canal.

Modern exploration in Panama crested in the late 1990’s during the peak of the last bull market in gold, which resulted in several advanced-stage projects as well as the opening of the Santa Rosa gold mine. During this time, mineral exploration and development was characterized by rampant speculation and monopolization, which did little to realize much of the country’s rich precious and base metal potential. The subsequent fall in metals prices saw many exploration projects shelved along with the closure of Santa Rosa.

Gold’s recent climb has sparked renewed interest in Panama, however a more positive result is expected from this bull market with the better political conditions in existence. One of the key factors that make Panama an attractive place to do business is the demonstrated commitment by the government to curb speculation and monopolization and reactivate the mining industry through the implementation of progressive measures to improve procedures and standards. Much of this work has been directed at clearing up dormant claims to make more exploration concessions available to capable and committed exploration companies, and towards updating the mineral application process to reduce the amount of time required to receive exploration permits.