Santo Domingo.- Mining Agency director Alexander Medina on Friday denied affirmations that Xstrata Nickel’s planned mine at Loma Miranda would harm the region’s ecosystems, and said the company Barrick Gold should pay more taxes because it’s profiting more with gold’s higher price.

He said Loma Miranda counts with 18 million tons of metal and its extraction will allow Xstrata Nickel Falcondo to compensate for the scarce production he affirms it’s getting from other sites, and operate profitably in the country for 20 years.

The official said if the government rejects Xstrata Nickel’s request to mine Loma Miranda, the company will leave the country in three or four years because the sites Caribe in Constanza and Peguera, in Bonao are too depleted to pay the extraction costs.

Medina, however, affirmed his agency defends only the country’s interests and noted that the Loma Miranda is a case authorized in 1965 and ratified by the state in 1969, when Falconbridge’s obtained the definitive rights, now acquired by Xstrata Nickel Falcondo.

Interviewed on Color Vision, Medina said the company’s proposals to mine Loma Miranda have been satisfactory, but "some people and institutions are demonizing the project saying that it will cause environmental damage."

Citing the Academy of Sciences, he said Loma Miranda’s 26 square kilometers has a 4-kilometer mineral deposit located west of the hill, where there is no river.