Conference looks at Belize’s minerals
The national anthem tells us “nature has blessed us with wealth untold”. Unfortunately, as far as mineral wealth is concerned, the “untold” refers to its location. That, however, may be changing. News 5’s Marion Ali has the story from Belmopan.
Marion Ali, Reporting
Any discussion of minerals in Belize will invariably turn to the subject of oil or gold. But today the talk in Belmopan dealt with what most of us would call plain old rocks. The event was the Second Symposium on the Industrial and Construction Minerals of Belize. And guess what? It turns out those rocks are worth something. Minister of Natural Resources Johnny Briceño explained.
John Briceño, Minister of Natural Resources
“We have the Garcia sisters in Cayo who work with black pieces almost like slate that they use to do carvings and whatever. If you are to look in here, Mr. Holland found some different rocks, which with the machinery you could polish it, you could do chess boards, you could do all sorts of things that you can sell to the tourist industry, and also to Belizeans. If you look at what Caribbean Investors Limited have done, they have gone into the Mountain Pine Ridge area, found huge deposits of rocks and now they’re cutting it and turning it into marble tiles. They are first class, it is wonderful.”
But what are our chances of exporting these products?
Johnny Briceño
“We have trading agreements with CARICOM. We have a big market that we can tap into. Mexico is right next to us, we have Central America. I think what happen to us is that many instances we get caught up with the United States and Europe, when right next to us we have big markets. In Mexico we have a market of over a hundred million people. We have organizations like BELTRAIDE, that’s their reason for being here is to assist in trade promotion. Now as the new Minister of Trade, we are looking at it seriously to see how we can put a team of people together and look at trading opportunities especially in our region.”
And while products like oil and gold were not on today’s agenda, Director of Geology and Petroleum, Evadne Wade, says they are still very much in the mix.
Evadne Wade, Director, Geology and Petroleum Department
“We are dealing with them. In fact, Minister has alluded to a geo-tourism project that we were in the process of doing for developing the small deposit of gold. But because we have seen that both gold and oil are near to the western border, in the light of the existing referendum and the proposals, we have said let’s hold off.”
Marion Ali for News 5.
Other potential mineral exports from Belize include granite, dolomite and cement.
