With the new tail dam authorized by President Luis Abinader to the company Pleasure Dome Dominicana Corporation for the Minera Barrick Pueblo Viejo, in Cotuí, Sánchez Ramírez, the Government would have to invest at least RD $ 20,000 million, apart from the serious environmental damage which will cause infrastructure in the region.
The expenses of the work coincide by the Minister of Energy and Mines, Joel Santos and the environmentalist Luis Carvajal, although they have positions found around the relevance or not of the dam.
Santos considers the project as a “complex” and Carvajal tells the Dominican people and asks the government to terminate it.
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The second amendment of the special contract for the lease of mining rights approved by the National Congress, establishes that the Dominican State must identify the people who live in the impacted areas, calculate the values to their crops, land and other goods and pay them to their own Costs, also to relocate families in adequate homes.
The Minister of Energy and Mines described the project as “complex, but of the utmost importance”, highlighting that it will directly impact more than 600 families.
“It is a complex process, but of great importance (…). The total investment in this resettlement process will reach the RD $ 20,000 million, which in the end will be assumed by the State, ”he said.
The decree
Through decree 720-22 President Luis Luis Abinader authorized the extension of the Montenegro fiscal zone, a mining area where Barrick Gold Pueblo Viejo operates in the Sánchez Ramírez province, for the installation of a relae and rocks without economic value, better known as prey to prey Colas.
Decision, the Head of State expanded the Montenegro Fiscal Reserve in 3,115.47 more hectares to make the queue dam and, in addition, allow the installation of auxiliary facilities to attend the Operations of the Minera.
Now the Minera would go from 4,880 hectares to 7,995.47, establishes the presidential decree.
Conditions
The authorization released on September 14, 2022, granted the Minera a term 36 months to carry out and present the studies of environmental and feasibility impact of the project.
It was established that the aforementioned term could be extended for a period of additional 24 months, in the event that the company could not do it and present it for a cause of force majeure.
The contract
Carvajal denounced that with The contract that considers a scam will cause serious environmental damage in the area.
He said section 7.6 of the contract that establishes that the State, ”according to its exclusive cost, will acquire and consequently lease Dome pleasure, without additional payment of any consideration by pleasure Dome, the land and the corresponding mining rights considered necessary for pleasure Dome for the permanent deposit of tailings and ballast produced by operations.
Once the State has concluded with the execution of its obligations of expropriation, relocation, granting of mining rights to Minera, as well as any other obligation on the deposit of tailings of El Llagal, it will be considered that the State has satisfied this obligation ”.
While in section 7.8 of the Agreement the State “undertakes to provide all the water rights necessary to carry out the operations according to the feasibility study, of a permanent and reliable source located within a reasonable distance of the Pueblo Viejo mine, without any additional position for pleasure Dome, subject to compliance with all laws, including those applicable to permits, procedures, registration or notification ”
Protests against Barrick
The bishopric of the Diocese of La Vega, community of the affected communities of Zambrana, The barrick and of the Government, have made two rounds of dialogue without achieving a solution to the conflict.
Antier hundreds of families that would be affected, together with priests, environmentalists and social leaders, marched in Cotuí against the construction of the queue dam and that in case of eviction their properties are paid with fair prices, as well as to be relocated to homes worthy
They denounce that the dam will damage the environment of the area.
