Haiti has a mining industry which extracted minerals worth approximately US$20 million in 2019. Bauxite, copper, calcium carbonate, gold, and marble were the most extensively extracted minerals in Haiti. Lime and aggregates and to a lesser extent marble are extracted. Gold was mined by the Spanish in early colonial times. Bauxite was mined for a number of years in recent times at a site near Miragoâne on the Southern peninsula. Operating from 1960 to 1972 International Halliwell Mines, Ltd. (“Halliwell”), a Canadian corporation, through its wholly owned Haitian subsidiary, La Societe d’Exploitation et de Developpement Economique et Natural d’Haiti (“Sedren”) mined copper near Gonaïves.
Half a million tons of ore were exported. The copper ore was valued at about $83.5 million. The government of Haiti received about $3 million. Since 2012 gold and copper mining in northern Haiti increased.
Recently, the Canadian company Majescor purchased the rights to explore 450 square km in Haiti and its stock doubled in the single day after it reported high levels of gold in its drill samples.
