Juana Barceló, president of Barrick Pueblo Viejo, has shared with the local media data on the volume of exports over the past years and prospects for continued growth in gold exports from the Pueblo Viejo mine in the north-central Sánchez Ramírez province. The company, whose Pueblo Viejo site is already one of the world’s Tier One gold mines, envisions an expansion of the mine’s processing plant and tailings capacity to extend the life of the mine into the 2030s and beyond. As announced by the company, the proposed capital investment would more than double the contribution the mine has already made to the Dominican Republic.
According to data shared by Barceló, the expansion would allow the mine to maintain total gold production at an average of 800,000 ounces per year after 2022. She says there is the potential to convert approximately seven million ounces of potential resources into proven and probable reserves.
Barrick has already exported US$9.1 billion from 2013 to 2018, representing 30% of total national exports of goods. This has generated a direct net value added of US$5.7 billion and a total net value of US$8.5 billion, equivalent to 2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The company’s foreign currency generation is US$4.9 billion, with a 110% increase in Net International Reserves in that period.
The company has also contributed US$1.8 billion to the Treasury, representing 16% of all income tax for that period. Also, the company generates 2,100 direct jobs, 97% are Dominican and has purchased US$1.8 billion locally from 2013 to 2018, which is 0.4% of GDP.
Barrick reports that from 2008 to 2018, it has invested more than US$5.2 billion in the Dominican Republic, which represents 19.2% of the country’s net foreign direct investment.
The expansion project would come at a time when the Ministry of Energy and Mines is studying a bill to reduce the negative impacts of mining in the country.
Recently, the president of the Commonwealth Roundtable in the Dominican Republic, Fernando Gonzalez Nicolas said that the Dominican exported US$1.65 billion in 2018, of which the main destinations were India (US$663 million) and Canada (US$584 million).
9 December 2019