President Leonel Fernández gave instructions for the accelerating of the bidding process for the La Rosario sulfide ore deposits. The director of Mining, Octavio Lopez said that the President recognizes that there are opportunities that should not be let pass. Recently, Alejandro Losada, of M.I.M., a major Australian company participating in the bid, said that the company was closing its Santo Domingo offices given the delay in the definition of the bid. López explained that there have been delays such as that the bidding companies are not in agreement with becoming financially responsible for environmental problems caused by the delay in the Rosario in contracting the company that would carry out the exploitation. There are three principal contenders for the contract, one from Canada, one from the United States and another from Australia. The Rosario is yet to contract the company that will develop the project to extract gold and silver from sulfide ore. Proven sulfide ore reserves are estimated at more than 100 million tons, which are estimated to generate US$2 billion during the well over 30 years life span of the mine.
