Barrick Gold with the backing of Dominican government officials and the participation of church and community leaders seeks to reach an agreement with those who seek better compensation for relocating to make way for a second tailings dam in the province of Sanchez Ramirez. The tailings dam would extend gold mining in the province.
The Ministry of Environment has already given the environmental permission for the construction of the second tailings dam and the company seeks to advance in the construction. While tailings dams are designed to be permanent, they have been known to fail catastrophically as in the recent cases of the Jagersfontein dam in South Africa in 2022, the Brumadinho dam in Brazil in 2019, the Staya Dam in Italy in 1985 and the El Cobre dam in Chile in 1965. Tailings dams are being replaced by the more expensive dry dams, not the choice of Barrick for the Dominican Republic.
Barrick has stressed the contribution gold mining has made to the economy in the Dominican Republic and the company stresses they practice responsible mining.
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
El Caribe
Noticias SIN
Tailings Dams
15 January 2025