Cuba reports deposit with eight tons of gold

HAVANA, Dec.8th Cuban experts announced that the island has a gold deposit of about eight tons in the province of Camagüey.An investigation by the Geomining Company of that province studied 144 hectares in an area located 30 kilometers from Guáimaro -in Loma Jacinto- where three gold-bearing mineral bodies were detected.

It is estimated that in these bodies studied there are eight tons of gold that, once exploited, could represent about 200 million dollars – at about 1,500 dollars an ounce – without adding the costs of feasibility and extraction.

This is the second-largest concentration of gold in the country, according to the project manager, Enrique Piñero Pérez, revealed to Prensa Latina.

According to Piñeiro, 10 veins were identified in the Jacinto vein system, but only three are those that have been investigated more thoroughly, with explorations, geological, hydrogeological, engineering-geological and technological studies.

It was concluded that a doré – an impure and unrefined mixture of metallic gold – will be obtained with few impurities, which means, according to him, “greater value to the product and better payments from buyers.”

Piñero stressed that the technology proposed for the exploitation of the deposit is “friendly to the environment”, and stressed that it has not only an economic impact on the country but will also serve as a source of employment in the aforementioned municipality.

In October of this year, the Australian mining company, Antilles Gold, claimed to have discovered high concentrations of gold and silver in Cuba after some first explorations carried out in La Demajagua, an enclave located in the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud.

As reported by the aforementioned Australian media, extracted samples revealed an “impressive” presence of precious metals, in which the concentration of gold reached 8 grams per ton.

Apart from investigations and agreements with other countries to search for gold deposits, the illegal extraction of gold and other minerals has grown in recent years in Cuba, where throughout 2020 and the first quarter of this year police operations acted against 115 people, according to Granma in June of this year.

The illegal search for gold has been registered mainly in Guantánamo, Holguín and Las Tunas, in places where residues of old exploitations of gold deposits, coleras or where there is alluvial gold are concentrated. Official media usually warn of the occurrence of accidents in the exercise of these activities, some of them fatal.

The illegal extraction of mineral resources can be classified as a crime and can be faced criminally, fines and the confiscation of the minerals and instruments that were used to commit the offence can also be imposed.

In Article 23, the Cuban Constitution establishes that mineral deposits and mines “are socialist property”, and specifies that to exploit them, whatever they are, a mining concession is required, processed by the National Office of Mineral Resources. (ONRM) and granted by the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers or the head of MINEM, depending on the mineral in question.

In Cuba, artisanal mining is approved for stone destined for construction, sand and clay, but it does not include any other type of mining.