Brief Analysis of 2014 Mining Law by NYU Law Global Justice Clinic

Several factors have combined in recent years to amplify interest in mining in Haiti. Chief among these are the recent history of rising gold prices, the Haitian government’s efforts to attract foreign investment, and the demonstrated productivity of the Pueblo Viejo mine in the neighboring Dominican Republic. Haiti not only shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, it also shares the rich mineral belt from which Pueblo Viejo is drawing gold and copper—a belt that stretches across Haiti’s northern departments. Pueblo Viejo is one of the world’s most productive mines and has spurred interest in the potential deposits that may lay under Haitian soil. The exact quantity of Haiti’s mineral resources is not known, but some estimates place the value of the gold alone at $20 billion.

There are no active metal mines in Haiti yet, but the government has identified the mineral sector as key to the country’s economic growth over the next two decades. Between 2006 and early 2013, two Canadian and two U.S. companies reportedly invested $30 million to explore for gold, copper, and other metals.

Since early 2013, mining activity in Haiti has been on hold. In February of that year, the Haitian Senate passed a resolution calling for a moratorium on mining, citing concerns about the process for granting mining permits and the danger mining poses to the environment. In the meantime, the Haitian government sought assistance from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to rewrite its outmoded mining law, which dates to the Duvalier era. The proposed new mining law has been drafted in consultation with the mining industry but without input from the Haitian public.

On July 24, 2017, Haitian media reported that Senator Hervé Fourcand had presented a draft mining law to Parliament. Despite numerous requests to the Office of Mines and Energy and to members of the Senate, Haitian civil society organizations have not succeeded in obtaining a copy of the law before Parliament. This document analyzes the draft law that the Global Justice Clinic (GJC) obtained in 2014. It is not know how, or if at all, the law now under consideration by Parliament has changed.