Business
Haiti: Country’s fortune changes as huge gold, copper deposits anticipated
Bottom line: Haitians should get US$1 out of every US$2 of profits, compared with about US$1 out of US$3 that most countries get from mining firms.
Discoveries of rich resources, whether diamonds, oil or gold, often prompt great economic booms but come with great risk of environmental, health and social problems. Chile, one of the wealthiest nations in Latin America, is the world’s largest copper exporter, deriving a third of its income from the metal. Peru, with one of the fastest growing economies in the world, has privatized most of its mines in recent years, and now gets about 20 percent of its total revenues from the industry.
Though the contractual terms are generous for Haiti, there is plenty to be cautious about. Haiti’s government is repeatedly rated as one of the most corrupt in the world. The mines would ostensibly be regulated by government officials responsible for enforcing environmental, mining and corporate laws, but at this point those officials don’t exist and there are neither plans nor budgets to hire them.
Further, open pit mines, common around the world, are crater-like holes made up of a series of massive terraced steps that drop thousands of feet into the ground. When the resources are exhausted, usually after about 25 years, the pits can be refilled or converted into reservoirs. In many cases, the mines leave serious problems — environmental contamination, displaced communities and mountaintops torn asunder.
From Papua New Guinea to the Philippines to Brazil, mining accidents have allowed tons of waste to be spilled into rivers and lakes, creating environmental disasters.
“In low-income countries, the dangers are substantial,” said UCLA political science professor Michael Ross. “The great irony of mineral wealth is that those countries that most desperately need infusions of mineral revenue, low-income countries with weak governments, are also least likely to manage these resources wisely, for the benefit of the country.
Already, the hundreds of jobs, the new roads and the community investment in a country where two out of three people have no formal employment is much appreciated.
Stone cutter Joseph Bernard, 47, says that before he got a job slicing rock samples, his family was going hungry. They had one cow. Their peanut and bean fields had gone to dust after months without rain.
Today, his wife has launched a business selling seeds, and his son and two daughters have started school.
“I found a job, but many didn’t,” he said, wiping a trickle of sweat from his deeply lined cheeks after a recent shift. “If more companies come, more people will work.”
