The Senator for La Vega, engineer Euclides Sanchez is circulating on the Internet a letter he sent to the director of the Department of Mining Alexander Medina in response to his announcement that Falcondo would submit a new environmental impact study in order to qualify for mining in Loma de Miranda. The senator called on Medina to resign as head of the mines department.
The Senator criticizes Medina, who he says worked for Falcondo in the Dominican Republic for 30 years, for acting more as an employee of the company than as director of mines for the Dominican Republic.
“While you have stated that nickel mining in Loma Miranda is not a closed case, I would like to confirm once more that for the population of our province of La Vega and the great majority of the Dominican people it is a definite closed case and extractive activity in that sacred place will not happen,” writes the senator.
He said that Medina is partial towards a company that has accumulated enormous environmental liability in the areas it has mined for more than 40 years and has acted without controls and above the environmental rules in the country and is thus a serious threat to biodiversity, negative for climate control and global warming. He said that his position is shared by the Diocese of La Vega, the Dominican Republic Academy of Science, the College of Engineers (Codia), the Medical Association (CMD), the Cooperativa Vega Real, the UASD, the Public School Teachers Association (ADP), the report issued by the United Nations Development Program, and the city halls of Jima Abajo, El Ranchito, La Vega, Bonao and Santo Domingo West, 144 deputies and most of the senators of the Republic.
Sanchez said that the environmental damage weighs much more than the 257 jobs that would be lost if the mine does not receive the mining permits.