In spite of the fact that gold has been extracted from the geography and geology pf the Dominican Republic for over 500 years, the Ministry of Energy and Mining has released a statement that says that there are still 26,000,000 ounces of gold in the areas under study or already in production. And there are deposits of copper and nickel as well. In fact, the Falconbridge Company in Bonao has just announced that it will start producing pure nickel for use in car batteries to get in step with the trend toward EV production.
Deputy Minister of Mines, Rolando Muñoz noted that with the proven reserves, mining will continue to be one of the main economic pillars of the Dominican economy. He added that there are 21 million tons of nickel, a possible 152 million tons of copper, and over 275 million tons of zinc in the country. The importance of gold mining is shown when it is shown that over 37% of all Dominican exports in 2020 came from the Barrick facility at Pueblo Viejo. Economist Henri Hebrard noted that between gold and the Falconbridge nickel production, it is quite feasible for the two entities to contribute over US$2.0 billion to the economy in 2022.
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Diario Libre
12 September 2022