A high-level mission from the Barrick Gold mining company arrived in the Dominican Republic in a private jet last night, Monday 6 May and held meetings with government officers shortly after arrival. The group of executives is headed by the co-chairman of Barrick’s Board of Directors John Lawson Thornton. The other members of the group are vice president, corporate and legal affairs Kelvin Paul Michael Dushnisky; senior officer Calvin Francis Pon; the Director of Barrick Leasing Corporation, and Alanna Heath, director government relations. The mission also includes Derek Hudson Burney, the former secretary of former Prime Minister of Canada, Brian Mulroney, who is a member of the Board of Directors of Barrick Gold, Curtis Arthur Johnson, a senior analyst of the treasury for Barrick Gold, and Andrew Lloyd, media relations for Barrick Gold.
According to the reports, the mission is bringing a rough draft for changes in the contract to present to the Medina government. Under the previous administration, the company secured a highly favorable contract that was fast-tracked through the PLD majority Congress and is now being disputed by the Medina administration.
At the moment the Customs department are still holding a shipment of gold that was due to have been exported on 1 May. Customs (DGA) is claiming that the shipment documentation contains irregularities and has mentioned US$1 billion in penalties for past irregularities. Barrick defends the exports by saying that the Customs Department (DGA) had duly authorized the previous shipments.
Barrick argues that all documentation has been inspected by officers of the Department of Customs (DGA).
Barrick Gold representatives have claimed that their financial difficulties prevented them from changing the conditions of the contract. The Medina administration, nevertheless, set a timetable of the end of April for financially more favorable conditions. A report in El Dia, says that Barrick has plans to take the case to international arbitration.
Diario Libre reports that in his address to the National Assembly last 27 February, President Danilo Medina issued an ultimatum to the mining company to accept a review of the current mining contract signed by the Dominican government during the previous administration, which he considered revealed “that the current scheme of distribution of the income, after the increase in the prices of gold on the world market, is unacceptable.”
At that moment, the President gave “a reasonable timeframe” to Barrick Gold. But the pressure for a revision was evident after Jose Ramon Peralta, the Administrative Minister for the Presidency, said that the timeframe would not extend beyond the month of April. So, last 30 April, the President issued a statement reporting that he had delivered his latest proposal for the modification of the contract to the representatives of Barrick Gold Pueblo Viejo. In this statement, attributed to the Presidential Minister, Gustavo Montalvo, there was mention of the issue of retroactivity of the exports, and it was specified that “in any possible scenario, the government will require the proper compensations to the country for the export of minerals retroactively.”
The Minister for the Presidency, Gustavo Montalvo, handed over a final proposal to Barrick last week, saying that the country required retroactive compensation for the gold that had been exported.
Meanwhile, news coverage focuses on the environmental risks of gold mining with the news that the company’s permission to a Chilean mine could be overturned on the grounds of violations by the company. Local environmentalists dispute the use of cyanide in the mining exploitation. Cyanide mining has been banned in many countries for its known contamination risks.
MacCleans of Canada had reported in 2011 that Alanna Heath, presently on the Barrick mission to the Dominican Republic, and a former adviser to Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, was hired to advise Barrick Gold after her job in government. She was paid to help stop a bill that would have required the government to probe alleged human-rights abuses by Canadian mining companies in other countries.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/02/17/barrick-gold-and-visa-hired-former-advisers-to-harper-gov’t/