During his wrap up of the official visit of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to the Dominican Republic on 5 and 6 February 2025, President Luis Abinader said the focus had been security, migration and trade, in that order.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the other hand, opened his remarks making it clear he had come for business. His first mention was about the talks regarding the rare earth elements found in southwestern Dominican Republic. The karst bauxite deposits in Pedernales are reported to have a wealth of minerals today highly valued for their optical and electrical conductivity properties. Since 2023, the US Army Engineering Corps have been studying the potential for their assessment and exploitation. The Las Mercedes site in southwestern Pedernales is the most promising.
Rubio also highlighted the opportunities for the Dominican Republic and expressed support of the US government to the Dominican Republic becoming a hub for semi-conductor manufacturing. He said in his remarks in Spanish that the US would work together with the Dominican government and business community towards this goal.
In their comments to the press, both Rubio and Abinader stressed the importance of these deposits. Last year, President Abinader created the Empresa Minera Dominicana (Emidom) for the express purpose of exploiting rare earth element resources and the US Army Engineering Corps is assisting in the assessment to determine the feasibility of commercial extraction.
Since bauxite was being extracted from the area, and since the bauxite ore might contain these rare earths, it was decided to close down the extraction of bauxite from the mine in Pedernales. The largest deposit is Las Mercedes had been under exploitation until 2016 by a private company, Dovemco. In order to protect the region, former President Danilo Medina declared the region to be a Mineral Reserve by way of Decree 430-18. As a step forward, the Abinader administration created Emidom by way of Decree 453-24.
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