Gold in the DR

frank recktenwald · Oct 18, 2009

Below is from the Panamanian La Prensa about a Canadian company investing in a goldmine here in the DR.

Negocios

Empresa canadiense explotar? mina dominicana

8:32 a.m. - SANTO DOMINGO, Rep?blica Dominicana. (AP). -La empresa canadiense Barrick Gold Corpooration invertir? en lo inmediato 700 millones de d?lares para explotar una mina de oro en Rep?blica Dominicana, inform? el s?bado el gobierno.

Barrick Gold, el mayor productor de oro del mundo, proyecta una inversi?n total de 2 mil 700 millones de d?lares en los siguientes cinco a?os, en la denominada mina de Pueblo Viejo, se?al? el gobierno.

El presidente Leonel Fern?ndez declar? el s?bado que solicit? a la Barrick Gold que las ayudas solidarias que realice al pa?s sean para desarrollar un instituto tecnol?gico en la ciudad de Cotu?, 100 kil?metros al norte de la capital, donde est? ubicado el yacimiento.

Fern?ndez manifest? su deseo de que los dominicanos puedan ir a Canad? a realizar postgrados y maestr?as pagados por la minera.

"Eso nos va a permitir efectivamente contar con profesionales reconocidos de calidad mundial'', afirm? el mandatario ante dirigentes comunitarios de Cotu?. "Ellos, los directivos de la Barrick- se han comprometido conmigo de que efectivamente habr? un programa de becas para egresados de la universidad del Iteco''.

Hillbilly · Oct 18, 2009

So? This has been on DR1 News and Diario Libre English for quite some time.
Barrick is supposed to be reprocessing the trailings and then going in for the sulfates/sulfides??? whatever, that also have gold. A lot of ore for a tiny bit of gold, but with gold over 800 an ounce (right?) and processing under 200, they stand to make billions. They are not stupid.

Major worry is what to do with all of the sulfuric acid that results from the processing.
Something like 10,000 gallons a day according to reliable estimates. This project has been on hold since 86 for various reasons...

HB

frank recktenwald · Oct 18, 2009

I also had read those articles and that it was kind of still up in the air but when I read the article this morning in the Panamanian newspaper for me it became news again that I wanted to share with DR1.
Gold is already more than $1000/ounce and I do share your concerns about the pollution.

Hillbilly said:
So? This has been on DR1 News and Diario Libre English for quite some time.
Barrick is supposed to be reprocessing the trailings and then going in for the sulfates/sulfides??? whatever, that also have gold. A lot of ore for a tiny bit of gold, but with gold over 800 an ounce (right?) and processing under 200, they stand to make billions. They are not stupid.

Major worry is what to do with all of the sulfuric acid that results from the processing.
Something like 10,000 gallons a day according to reliable estimates. This project has been on hold since 86 for various reasons...

HB

bob saunders · Oct 18, 2009

There are a number of other gold deposits in the DR that have had internation exploration companies looking at development.

Mr_DR · Oct 18, 2009

Hillbilly said:
So? This has been on DR1 News and Diario Libre English for quite some time.
Barrick is supposed to be reprocessing the trailings and then going in for the sulfates/sulfides??? whatever, that also have gold. A lot of ore for a tiny bit of gold, but with gold over 800 an ounce (right?) and processing under 200, they stand to make billions. They are not stupid.

Major worry is what to do with all of the sulfuric acid that results from the processing.
Something like 10,000 gallons a day according to reliable estimates. This project has been on hold since 86 for various reasons...

HB

More like Over 1000 per ounce.

Tamborista · Oct 18, 2009

Mr_DR said:
More like Over 1000 per ounce.

$1053.50 to be exact!

dieselguy · Oct 18, 2009

My amiego,------ had a Jewelry store for many years. He told me about a u.s. guy who came here , met a girl and was not leaving until she came w/him. He came into his shop every other month w/a bag of nuggets,river gold. Then it was about 3 k us a month in late 80's. He was working the river. Slucing (sp)? Working the river.
That canadian co. waited for a friendly administration and some solid guarantees. They did not know the market price.
I never visited the site but was invited.
I dont want pollution.!!!!

suarezn · Oct 18, 2009

Barrick is already started the process of setting up all necessary equipment, personnel, etc to start full fledge operations next year. Tons of people being hired in Cotui and their trucks are all over town. They are injecting quite a bit of money into the local economy already and also driving up prices of everything specially housing which is now more expensive in Cotui than in Santiago.

dieselguy · Oct 19, 2009

How many ships left the Hispaniola w/ gold in their holds. A couple of years ago or so a huge treasure was located. Case is still in courts.
I took a related couple to shop and they bought a ruby and diamond antique necklace. (insider trading)....Holy cow were they happy. I had it looked at in n.y. and got buy prices of more than double their purchase price. They paid 800$us. and i thought it was worth 2500$ They gave it as a gift to daughter...
I'm not sure if this country is awash w/gold, but there is enough to spark my interest.

pedrochemical · Oct 27, 2009

Methinks that current gold prices reflect a developing bubble.
Interestingly though, gold is worth half of what it was some time in the '80's if you take inflation into account.

Dre Broeders · Oct 28, 2009

Who know something about the goldmine in La MINA near Miches?

pedrochemical · Oct 28, 2009

ex-cuse said:
Tell me how that works. In the 90's i got pd. in gold oz's. I accepted them at a little more than mkt. 350$ I always sold them for more. Now i can get over 1k$us. for one. It has been sitting in my safe for almost 15 yrs.
Did i loose? The best $$$ vehicle i have ever run across was silver at 4-5$oz. now it is almost triple your money??? not to long ago...

It works like this.....
in the 80s gold was worth more than it is now if you take into account inflation - not even compounding interest gained on cash deposits over the same period.
If you put 350 shekels in the bank in the 80s you would have over 1000 now.

Regardless - beware the gold bubble.

TOOBER_SDQ · Oct 28, 2009

pedrochemical said:
Methinks that current gold prices reflect a developing bubble.
Interestingly though, gold is worth half of what it was some time in the '80's if you take inflation into account.

Well really, the value/ purchasing power of gold has remained unchanged. It is the puchasing power of the currency that has decreased. If a currency devalues, you need more of it to buy an ounce of gold.

If you had an ounce of gold and a time machine, and traveled back to 1970, you would be able to buy the same amount of oil (commodity example) with one ounce of gold as you would today.

It is gold that retains value, whereas FIAT currencies do not.

pedrochemical · Oct 28, 2009

TOOBER_SDQ said:
Well really, the value/ purchasing power of gold has remained unchanged. It is the puchasing power of the currency that has decreased. If a currency devalues, you need more of it to buy an ounce of gold.

If you had an ounce of gold and a time machine, and traveled back to 1970, you would be able to buy the same amount of oil (commodity example) with one ounce of gold as you would today.

It is gold that retains value, whereas FIAT currencies do not.

I got my info from the BBC website - usually they are correct about these things. But if you know better then bully(on) for you...

suarezn · Nov 4, 2009

Regardless of what the gold price is everyone in Cotui (well those of us who care) are just astonished at the "renegotiation" of the contract that just took place, by which the Dominican government basically just gave up any income they were supposed to receive from this gold mining enterprise for at least six years. An amendment was introduced to congress (don'k know by whom) and it was passed without any resistance from anyone except the deputy and senator from Cotui.

Listen to this...Barrick will give The DR any money only after they have recouped all of their investments (estimated at about 2700 million USD) and only after they are making at least 10% net profit. So in reality the government could in effect get Zero, nothing, zippo from this if Barrick turns out to not have at least a 10% net profit once they've recouped all of their investments. This is ridiculous beyond belief...

Imagine you own a huge pile of gold only it's buried and needs extracting. You may not have the equipment to extract it yourself, but I'm pretty sure nobody is going to say "Mr. extractor all of this gold is now yours and you can pay me something once you get every penny you spent to buy the equipment, train people, etc and then and only then you can give me some money if you so desire...". This makes me so angry because in this negotiation WE should have the power. WE are the ones with the nonrenewable resource (gold). We probably could have hired Barrick to extract this gold for us instead of just giving to them...

frank recktenwald · Nov 4, 2009

The DR will not get paid but I wouldn't be surprised if somebody already has been paid or will be in the future.

suarezn said:
Regardless of what the gold price is everyone in Cotui (well those of us who care) are just astonished at the "renegotiation" of the contract that just took place, by which the Dominican government basically just gave up any income they were supposed to receive from this gold mining enterprise for at least six years. An amendment was introduced to congress (don'k know by whom) and it was passed without any resistance from anyone except the deputy and senator from Cotui.

Listen to this...Barrick will give The DR any money only after they have recouped all of their investments (estimated at about 2700 million USD) and only after they are making at least 10% net profit. So in reality the government could in effect get Zero, nothing, zippo from this if Barrick turns out to not have at least a 10% net profit once they've recouped all of their investments. This is ridiculous beyond belief...

Imagine you own a huge pile of gold only it's buried and needs extracting. You may not have the equipment to extract it yourself, but I'm pretty sure nobody is going to say "Mr. extractor all of this gold is now yours and you can pay me something once you get every penny you spent to buy the equipment, train people, etc and then and only then you can give me some money if you so desire...". This makes me so angry because in this negotiation WE should have the power. WE are the ones with the nonrenewable resource (gold). We probably could have hired Barrick to extract this gold for us instead of just giving to them...

Hillbilly · Nov 4, 2009

So much for negotiations and the Desarrollo of Sanchez Ramirez Province....

Bonao did so much better. It is a shame that there was not, apparently any time to get the people together to protest this violently. Perhaps something can be done before "Lord Leonel" puts his signature on the thing../????

Good luck..

HB

suarezn · Nov 4, 2009

I've put in a request to Nuria to do a piece on this. I doubt if she will though given the stuff that's going on right now with death of her friend Micky Breton and the beating and subsequent shooting up of the house of Franklin Guerrero (who works for her) for taking pictures of the largest drug distributor in Santo Domingo who got arrested this week. La Rep?blica - Franklin Guerrero: ?La meta de los narcotraficantes es conseguir el silencio?

I'm sure these will be topic number one on her next program.

Hillbilly · Nov 7, 2009

More fuel for the fire: I was told this morning that the lobbyist for Barrick is none other than Hans Hertel the former ambassador that seems to be all over the place these days. It was mentioned that Hans got back Amable Arity's visa for a cool 200 large....no substance, but lots of traction in Santo Domingo circles...

HB

dms3611 · Nov 7, 2009

"Imagine you own a huge pile of gold only it's buried and needs extracting. You may not have the equipment to extract it yourself, but I'm pretty sure nobody is going to say "Mr. extractor all of this gold is now yours and you can pay me something once you get every penny you spent to buy the equipment, train people, etc and then and only then you can give me some money if you so desire...". This makes me so angry because in this negotiation WE should have the power. WE are the ones with the nonrenewable resource (gold). We probably could have hired Barrick to extract this gold for us instead of just giving to them..."

Imagine an existing ecological nightmare that would NEVER be cleaned up in any significant way unless the Dominican government got someone to buy into a SERIOUS "clean up" as well as to deal with extracting their gold from sulphide tailings.....this is not general unsophisticated hard rock gold processing as it was when the mine was first established so long ago......

Gold in the DR

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