Today on Almontes Wed Site. GLTA!VICE MINISTER DAZ HIGHLIGHTS THE IMPORTANCE OF MINERALS FOR ENERGY TRANSITION Print Friendly, PDF & Email The Vice Minister of Mines, Miguel Daz, highlighted the importance of mining for the Dominican economy and for the energy transition process that seeks to mitigate greenhouse gases. During a dissertation in the Assembly Hall of the Ibero-American University (Unibe), engineer Daz spoke about mining as a "cold reserve" of the Dominican economy, arguing that in the period of the Covid-19 pandemic, most of the items of the economy's exports fell, but that mining exports and remittances grew to provide foreign currency to the nation. He explained that the term cold reserve refers in the "electric sector" to the plants that are turned off and that enter the system when for some reason other plants go out of operation to prevent the electrical service from collapsing. During the pandemic there was an external shock. Agriculture suffered due to logistics, because imports of fertilizers and other inputs from that sector stopped, tourism closed completely, only remittances and mining grew, the deputy minister explained to Unibe engineering students. He assured that during the pandemic the price of minerals increased, thus increasing income from exports of these products, with mining being a key sector for generating foreign exchange for the economy at a time when other vital sectors of the economy had to close or reduce its production. Engineer Daz also argued that, for the energy transition process, which must take place between now and 2050, the use of minerals will be key to that change. The minerals required for the energy transition are lithium, nickel, manganese, rare earths. Electric networks need a large amount of copper, aluminum, copper being the cornerstone of all technologies related to electricity. This will raise the price of minerals, which will be beneficial for the generation of foreign exchange from the exports of these products, he said.