Dominican Republic Suspends GoldQuest Mine After Water Protesters March

President Luis Abinader ordered a suspension of any activity tied to GoldQuest Mining Corp.’s Romero gold and copper project after thousands of people marched across San Juan province to protest what they see as a threat to water security. The crowd walked about 20 kilometers to the Sabaneta Dam, a key source of water in a region where farming shapes daily life and where mining has long been a political fault line.

The decision landed before GoldQuest had received a permit for exploitation, giving the government room to stop the project while it was still moving through the environmental review process. GoldQuest received official Terms of Reference from the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of the Dominican Republic on June 11, 2025, a milestone the company described as the start of the final Environmental Impact Assessment phase. The Romero Project itself dates back to exploratory concessions granted in 2005, but under Abinader it had remained in permitting rather than production.

The suspension also reflected the political weight of water in San Juan de la Maguana and the surrounding agriculture-based economy, which supports about 143,000 residents. Félix Bautista, the senator for San Juan, publicly rejected mining exploitation in the Cordillera Central days before the halt and warned that the project could endanger the Sabaneta Dam and the region’s water supply. In a country where communities have repeatedly challenged extractive projects over contamination, displacement and access to water, the confrontation underscored how quickly environmental protest can reshape the state’s calculation.

GoldQuest has cast the Romero project as a large-scale underground mine designed to produce copper concentrate containing gold and silver. Its 2016 pre-feasibility study projected 2,800 tonnes a day of output, probable reserves of 7.03 million tonnes containing 840,000 ounces of gold, 980,000 ounces of silver and 136 million pounds of copper, with life-of-mine production of about 1.117 million ounces of gold equivalent and an after-tax net present value of US$203 million. AFP reporting placed the reserve value at around US$5 billion, helping explain why the mine had been seen as economically significant even as critics focused on the land and water risks.

GoldQuest said on May 4 that it respected stakeholders’ right to express their views and remained committed to open and constructive dialogue with communities, authorities and other stakeholders. For Abinader, the suspension drew a line between investment promises and public pressure over water, signaling that in San Juan, mining will now have to compete not just with regulators but with a louder demand for community consent.