SILVER, COPPER MINING

COULD SAVE HAITI

Haiti’s copper and silverreserves in its hills arenow up for an extensiveexploitation by aCanadian corporation thathas reportedly damagedthe neighboringDominican Republic.

Once this mining plan isauthorized while Haitiis under foreignoccupation, it couldpractically leave thecountry without itsecological, cultural andmineral wealth.

Moreover, concernssurrounding the miningventure have been raisedas the operation calls forthe construction of a deep-water port in thenortheastern part of thecountry, posing asignificant threat to their

The biggest water reservoirthat is near the miningoperations is at constantrisk of cyanidecontamination, adding tothe reports that the firm hasbeen previously accused ofdestroying Indianarcheological sites by usingdynamites on

Geologists of the UnitedNations have documentedsignificant pockets ofcopper and gold in 1970sbut at that time,foreigners were notwilling to risk their moneyin an unstable and corruptcountry.

Surprisingly, it was not afterthe 2010 earthquake thatoutside investment wasencouraged and investorsdiscovered a good opportunity.In fact, just 2 weeks after thecatastrophe, a Canadianexploration company purchasedall the stocks of the onlyHaitian company which has fullpermits in exchange for an area

Three companies are alreadyconsidering prospects of miningin Haiti but at present, onlySomine has completeconcessions to bring the metalsout of the area. The said permitsfor 31 square miles werenegotiated in 1996 during thepresidency of Rene Preval andwhich required the company tohire Haitians.

According to the parties interested

in the mining prospects:

“What we’re most excited about is that we found some silver which was never really realized before. It’s the first silver discovery in Haiti. Part of the reason why it was never really discovered was that historically there was so much copper prevalent — there’s a lot of outcropping at surface. The people who did the work before did not do much testing, even for gold. The geology is a little complex for a

At the end of the day, ifHaiti could have a goodadministration and honestmining companies, it is stillpossible for it to moveforward, said Black HawkMining Bulletin Articles