Americas > Caribbean > Haiti > Haitian Senate Halt to Mining Activitie

Haiti: Haitian Senate Halt to Mining Activitie

2013/03/02

In a resolution approved by 15 of 16 senators present, the lawmakers as well demanded the establishment of a commission to review amount of the current mining contracts and “a national debate on the country’s mineral resources.”

News of the permits prime caused an uproar in January. Journalists, experts and politicians speculated on what Haiti had lost or would gain, and accused the national mining agency (the Bureau des Mines et d’Energie – BME) of granting “illegal” contracts.

The senators say that the three new permits violate the Haitian Constitution because they are based on 1997 conventions that were at no time approved by the parliament.

At a appropriate hearing on Jan. 22, senators accused BME director Ludner Remarais of subverting the law.

“I am sorry the Senate was at no time contacted,” Remarais responded, tears in his eyes.

“Decrees have the same authority as laws. If someone wants to be a demagogue or make political hay, he can call the conventions ‘illegal,’ but they are legal,” Anglade told IPS in a telephone interview on Feb. 6, 2013.

The three “new” permits – for mining deposits in Morne Bossa, Douvray and “Faille B” in Haiti’s North and Northeast departments – are not new. They are the conversion of permits for “exploration” into permits for “exploitation”.

But in both cases, the power rests overseas, in the hands of foreign companies and shareholders.

SOMINE S.A. is a subsidiary of the Canadian mining company Majescor which says it specialises in “emerging” regions. Last month, Majescor offered for sale over two million dollars worth of shares for “the SOMINE project.” Majescor says it controls SOMINE because it controls a company called SIMACT Alliance Copper-Gold Inc., which in turn controls the majority of SOMINE shares.

VCS Mining, the company working in Morne Bossa, maintains that it has followed Haitian law from the beginning. Last year, VCS submitted the required “feasibility study” for the site, which maps out the steps they will take in order to prepare for mining, and it was finally accepted by the BME in November, a representative told IPS in a telephone interview.

The VCS representative as well said that his company has invested over four million dollars in the Morne Bossa site so far, and that since gold was prime discovered by U.N. geologists in the late 1970s, “over 38 million (dollars) has been spent.”

Seeking verification and clarification, IPS requested an interview with BME director Ludner Remarais. The interview was three times promised, and again denied. IPS wanted to confirm what VCS said, to ask for a copy of the feasibility studies and as well to ask about the illegality of the original conventions.

“Anything under five % is just really ludicrous for a country like Haiti. You shouldn’t even consider it. For a country with a weak national, the royalty is the safest place to get your money,” Kumar told IPS in 2012.

The other major concerns are lack of transparency, and the lack of participation from and benefits to local communities.

“At the same time as the Senate votes a resolution, the executive needs to be careful,” Laguerre told IPS in a telephone interview. “If the resolution is not respected, the Senate can find ways to punish the executive, and can even punish it politically by calling for a change in government.”

<div style="\"_height:px;" width:px;background-color:#ffffff;font-family:arial;border:="" 1px="" solid="" #ffffff;="" text-align:left;\"="" class="rtejustify"> *This story was produced in collaboration with <a title="Haiti" href="http://www.globserver.cn/en/haiti" _cke_saved_href="http://www.globserver.cn/en/haiti">Haiti</a> Grassroots Watch. For additional data, see <a title="Haiti" href="http://www.globserver.cn/en/haiti" _cke_saved_href="http://www.globserver.cn/en/haiti">Haiti</a> Grassroots Watch series “Gold Rush in <a title="Haiti" href="http://www.globserver.cn/en/haiti" _cke_saved_href="http://www.globserver.cn/en/haiti">Haiti</a>!”</div> <p></p>

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