Mining
surge in Dominican Republic attracts new search
Trinidad Express
Santo
Domingo, Dominican Republic
Petroleumworldtt.com
12 03 06
Two Canadian mining companies announced a new search
for gold and copper in the central Dominican Republic
on Thursday, joining a flock of North American businesses
scouting for metals in the Caribbean nation.
Everton
Resources Inc. and GlobeStar Mining Corp. will search
the 400-square-kilometer (154-square-mile) copper-
and gold-producing Maimon Formation about 100 kilometers
(62 miles) north of Santo Domingo, GlobeStar CEO
Bill Fisher said by phone from Toronto.
Using
helicopters loaded with electromagnetic and magnetic
measurement equipment, the companies will look 300
meters (984 feet) under the surface for six weeks
beginning in December. It will be the first such
search in this area since 1972, Everton said in
a statement.
Mining
companies have been coming here in droves since
Barrick Gold Corp. began its US$1.4 billion (euro1.08
billion) redevelopment of the massive Pueblo Viejo
mine, which could be the second-largest gold mine
in the Americas, Fisher said.
The
Dominican Republic's relative political stability
and its impending entrance into the Central American
Free Trade Agreement are helping attract the companies,
he said.
"It's
as busy as it's ever been. Gold price is high, copper
price is high. The whole industry is just going
100 percent," Fisher said. "I hope we'll
be mining (in the Dominican Republic) for 20 years."
GlobeStar
was already developing the area's Cerro de Maimon
site, which holds an estimated 3.35 metric tons
(3.69 tons) of copper, would be the highest grade
open-pit copper mine outside of the Congo, Fisher
said.
That
mine, scheduled to begin producing in 2008, is also
estimated to hold 1.28 grams per tonne of gold.
Gold,
which traded in London at US$630.30 (euro489.43)
bid per troy ounce on Thursday, is posting its highest
prices in more than two decades. When copper traded
for US$4.04 (euro4.14) per pound on the commodities
market in May, it had reached more than five times
its value from 2000.
Trinidad
Express
Wednesday, November 29th 2006
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