Santo Domingo.- Only 2% of the investments in the millions by mining companies in exploration projects reach the exploitation phase, said Mines Vice Minister Miguel Díaz, referring to the risk-prone investments in this sector.
“To that is added – he said – that mining projects have to invest a lot of money in research and development before proceeding to exploit a mine and they need to demonstrate that the project is environmentally viable and socially sustainable.”
The official also highlighted that, during the most acute period of the health crisis caused by the covid-19 pandemic, almost all export items of the Dominican economy collapsed and only mining exports and remittances grew to provide foreign currency.
He indicated that the mining sector acted as a “cold economic reserve.”
Diaz spoke in a dissertation sponsored by the Dominican Society of Geology.