Joel Santos highlights DR drives new mining policy with a sustainable and integration focus

Dominican Republic is moving towards a new mining policy, focused on environmental sustainability, institutional strengthening, improving the quality of life of communities, and greater citizen participation.

This was stated by the Minister of Energy and Mines, Joel Santos, during his opening remarks for the panel "Mining: progress or conflict? The present and future of mining in the Dominican Republic", organized by the Economic and Social Development Council of Santo Domingo (Codessd).

Santos underlined that, as part of the transformation process, a comprehensive reform of the Mining Law (146-71) is underway, which contemplates the modernization of the concession regime, the creation of a mining fund, the strengthening of the cadastre, as well as the adaptation of the regulatory framework to the technological advances of the sector.

In that order, Santos pointed out that the country has taken the path towards development, avoiding conflicts in favor of each Dominican citizen. To this end, he highlighted what he considered as "the secret of the Dominican strategy" in all senses of the economy: the strengthening of the relationship between the public and private sectors.

And as a demonstration of the progress of the current management in the matter, the minister referred to the international dimension that local mining has acquired, with the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) that has represented more than US$1,224 million in the last four years.

Among the strategic axes of the Dominican government, he detailed the development of the rare earth exploitation process, and announced that by the third quarter of 2025 the country expects to confirm the gross value of the elements, and then begin a process of studies that can yield the net values.

Subsequently, and according to the estimate, the Dominican Republic would make a first declaration of reserves and a preliminary economic study for the second quarter of 2026, the minister said. "Once we have declared a reserve, we can present how many assets the country has in that regard. Which represents an important step. At that moment, we would have to move forward with the pre-feasibility study and, eventually, with the feasibility, market, and all environmental-related studies," he added. He pointed out that mining in the Dominican Republic served as a counter-cyclical sector; that is, it acted as a support against the adverse effects caused by events such as the covid pandemic.

For his part, Peter Read, vice president of Codessd, thanked the Ministry of Energy and Mines for its participation in the event, which served as a kind of advisory on oversight, citizen participation, decision-making, and public policies related to mining.

In the panel, held at the Weston Hotel and moderated by Jaime Rincón, participated the general director of Mining of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, Rolando Muñoz; the president of Barrick Pueblo Viejo, Juana Barceló, and the economist Richard Medina Gómez.

Muñoz pointed out the importance of the event, considering that "it serves as a channel for people to join the debate and understand the importance of the benefits generated by the mining industry."