Goldquest Mining Corp V.GQC

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Wealth and danger! The gold rush between contenders for and against

• THE COUNTRY
• THE TOPIC OF TODAY

• nelson marrero
• January 14, 2023

Barrick Gold

The Ministry of Energy and Mines considers it feasible that the golden wealth begins to contribute to the well-being of communities that surround exploitations

The extraction of the golden metal, of incorruptible and solid intrinsic value, has marched in the Dominican Republic with abundant fruits as a line of the economy but also placed among the concerns of the regulating and vigilant State that did not want, on the one hand, to appear in history as riskily flexible with the mining activity due to its potential damage and on the other side is the powerful, almost apostolic zeal of the conservationist movements of invariable fear.
The gold from this land is of recognized importance as an export line, attracting investment and a substantial source of income for the treasury and for jobs with remunerations higher than the prevailing averages in the private sector. However, it does not come out of the shadows cast by its ability to emit toxic waste. Its trait in this sense has delayed the authorizations to expand exploitations to which the firm Barrick Gold would be subject to guarantee its profitability and justify its investment. At the same time, the GoldQuest mining project appears , which rubs its hands and aspires to the precious metal that is housed in the subsoil of San Juan de la Maguana, apparently slowed down by the rejection of the community and conservationists.
 

Red alert

To highlight the significance that mining in general holds for the country, and that of gold in particular, the magazine of the Ministry of Energy and Mines recalled in its editorial from just over a year ago that despite the discouraging impact of the covid- 19 that caused the economy to decrease by 6.7% and exports by more than 30%, in 2020 Dominican mineral shipments abroad remained stable, generating US$2,000 million, 75% of which was accounted for by the metal with its fascinating golden luster. of what has been achieved

 

Although the comment was aimed at legitimizing the continuation of the use of national underground wealth, to which a significant inflow of foreign capital has been directed, the most essential thing for the Barrick extractor to continue operating with an assured future is to create a large area of virgin land in the province of Snchez Ramrez a new dam for the toxic waste from its processes, a step received with reservations by influential environmentalists.

 

This is an objective that after the creation of a new national park would be difficult to allow in the opinion of the vice president of the Academy of Sciences of the Dominican Republic and a columnist for this newspaper, Eleuterio Martnez, alerted because the extraction of gold in that jurisdiction occurs on a tributary of the Ozama River and "all the pollution that occurs in the area necessarily comes to the capital." Waste from metallurgical exploitation is made up of heavy metals and the presence of “highly harmful substances”.
 

Decree 659-22 recently created the Loma de los Siete Picos National Park for the conservation of nature in the Sierra de Yamas, extending its restrictions to San Cristbal and Bonao; and although it does not include areas under gold extraction, a tailing dam in the vicinity would generate an accumulation of highly harmful substances for various watercourses, it is alleged.

environmental rigor

 

By clearing the way for the construction of a new facility for Barrick Gold Pueblo Viejo to dispose of rocks with an aggressive composition to the environment, the Dominican State conditioned the final approval of the project on the result of an environmental impact and pre-feasibility study carried out by the company itself. that it must formulate technical estimates and definitions that demonstrate the impossibility of continuing to use the current open-air storage site for tailings (disposable solids) in the long term.

That is to say: it will be necessary for the company to justify that the current tailings dam cannot continue to be used to maintain active the extraction that would be possible based on Executive Power decree 270-22 that authorizes the expansion of the mining area in which Barrick operates in 3,115.47 hectares. Implicit in the official provision is the interest of the Government that the qualification of more land for chemical degradation only occurs as a resource of supreme necessity, probably taking into account that in the regions affected by gold mining throughout the world, the emissions of mercury gases that can reach the water and the subsoil with severe effects on food production.

In fact, in the Dominican Republic there are several mining concessions in the areas of influence of some reservoirs used for human and agricultural consumption, including the one corresponding to the Sabana Yegua dam. It has been denounced that the Masacre River originates in an area at the disposal of the Barrick Gold mining company, in which several rivers that flow into the main channel are also located.

Regarding what it intends to do to protect natural resources in the Snchez Ramrez province, the Canadian firm said that it plans to have the environmental study required by the Dominican State ready by the end of last year, which has not been reported. He also announced that the current tailings dam will undergo a recovery process that would make the land suitable for agricultural purposes.
 

stagnant gold

 

The mining project of the GoldQuest firm to be developed in San Juan de la Maguana is challenged with files from community members and environmentalists that include concern about the possibility that it will cause important changes in the morphology of the land, reducing agricultural and livestock production. It is alleged, among multiple pessimistic forecasts, that the flora of the place would be in danger by modifying or eliminating it, although these are theoretical exercises in the absence of direct environmental impact studies that have not yet been approved by the Dominican authorities based on the main characteristics that are associated with the mining of the shiny metal.

GoldQuest maintains that it invested 44 million dollars in exploration in the El Romero area, in which it would have confirmed the existence of a deposit of 75% gold, 24% copper and 1% silver, with reserves estimated at 3 million ounces of gold with two of the contents capable of being exploited. From the company's point of view, the Dominican State has been failing by not granting the exploitation permit that would be preceded by the environmental and feasibility study.
 

"We really think that in this type of project decisions must be made that have to be scientific," expressed at the time the local representative of GoldQuest, Fliz Mercedes, for whom the issue has been politicized. He defended the actions of the mining company in the country, asserting that from the point of view of the law they have complied with all the steps that it requires.

zero trust

The conservationist Luis Carvajal, coordinator of the Environmental Commission of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo and member of the Academy of Sciences, declared two years ago, regarding the concerns generated by the extraction of gold, that in the Dominican Republic there is not a single river that it is not located, at its point of origin or in its middle basin, in areas of any mining concession. He has insisted that Barrick Gold has an authorization that would impact the Massacre River in the area called Pico de Gallo and all its tributaries.

This essayist and biologist graduated in Russia considers it absurd that "i
n a country like ours, which is part of a small island, they are discussing whether or not to expand a mining company towards the hill of the Seven Peaks or whether to build a tail dam”. In his opinion, anywhere in the world "that would have stopped, it would not continue to be discussed, because that should not even be the subject of discussion." The Dominican press also collected a statement of his in which he denounced that "There is a whole set of mining concessions that imply a madness around the regulation and that demonstrate that the State has no territorial policy."
 

In order for gold to shine in all the purity that makes it one of the most expensive metals, and which last January 6 was quoted at US$1,886 a troy ounce, the raw stones have to be treated with mercury that facilitates its separation.

Exposure to mercury, even in small amounts, can cause serious health problems, is dangerous for intrauterine development and in the early stages of life. It can have repercussions on the nervous, immune, digestive systems, and on the skin, lungs, and eyes according to the most present descriptions in the registry of scientific evaluations.