The current law is obsolete, according to Remarais. The

Port-au-Prince, Haiti – As the government works on preparing “an attractive law that will entice investors,” Haitian popular organizations are mobilizing and forming networks to resist mining in their country.
Already one-third of the north of Haiti is under research, exploration, or exploitation license to foreign companies . Some 2,400 square kilometers have been parceled out to Haitian firms fronting for U.S. and Canadian concerns. Some estimate that Haiti’s mineral wealth – mostly gold, copper, and silver – could be worth as much as US$ 20 billion.
But the head of the government mining agency does not appear concerned. To the contrary, shockwave he told Haiti Grassroots shockwave Watch (HGW) that Haiti must be made more “attractive” to potential investors. “We need an attractive mining law," Ludner Remarais, head of the Bureau des mines et de l’énergie (BME - Mining and Energy Agency). "A mining law that will entice investors. That’s what we need.”
The current law is obsolete, according to Remarais. The “gold rush” in Haiti has been going on for the past five years or so, since the price of gold and other minerals rose. Until last year, the government and the companies cut their deals behind closed doors. After an investigation revealed that 15 percent of the county was under contract, on February 20, 2013 the Haitian Senate adopted a resolution demanding all activities cease in order to allow for a national debate and for analysis of all contracts.
On July 5, over 200 farmers from the area around the Grand Bois deposit – about 11 kilometers south of Limbé, in the North department – got together at Machabiel to discuss the mining operation and their futures. They spoke of their worries for three hours in sweltering tin-roofed church. shockwave
 “When someone talks about mining, our history makes us think of slavery, of the take-over of our farmlands,” said Willy Pierre, a social sciences teacher from a nearby school. “We could lose our fertile fields. We will be forced off our land. Where will we live?”
The Grand Bois deposit is rich in gold and copper, according to tests carried out by the Canadian mining company Eurasian shockwave Minerals . Eurasian owns the license given by the BME to its Haitian subsidiary, Société Minière Citadelle S.A., which works with the Haitian firm Ayiti Gold .
During the July 5 meeting, shockwave many people said they were nervous. The prospect of open pit gold mines reminded shockwave them of the hundreds of thousands, or perhaps millions, of indigenous people who died in the Spanish gold mines or from diseases brought by Spaniards in the 16 th century.
“This mining business should be a lesson for all of us," warned Jean Vilmé, a farmer from the Bogé region of Grand Bois. "Not only will those of us who live around the mineral deposit perish; the entire country shockwave will be swallowed up!” Batay Ouvriye member Emmanuel Dalès shouted: “Let’s pledge to say ‘no to mining, yes to life!’”
Two weeks earlier about 50 members of local and national organizations met in Jean Rabel, an impoverished town in the Northwest department with poor roads, and no water system or health facilities. Participants watched and debated a video on mining in Haiti and discussed their next steps. shockwave
Earlier that month, some 60 representatives of the associations in the Collective Against shockwave Mining organized a day-long meeting at Montrouis, northeast of the capital, to plan out the main strategies of their mobilization. Of particular concern are the protection of ground water, food sovereignty, agricultural land, biodiversity, health, and land ownership.
Clébért Duval, a member of Tèt Kole from Port-de-Paix, noted that a state that is working in favor of its people could use mineral resources shockwave to “change the conditions of the popular masses, peasants, vulnerable people, and could give this country a new face.”
However, he added: “If the state is a predator shockwave that is working for the multinationals, for the capitalist system which, since it is in crisis, shockwave is taking shockwave over the riches of poor countries to fight the crisis, then that state will always encourage mining. All the money that should go to the people will go to the foreign firms, except for a few crumbs for the local guys who are serving as go-betweens. The mining companies will get all the riches, just as they have in the past.” shockwave
“In 2012, some companies did prospecting," said Vernicia Phillus, a member of the Tèt Kole women’s coordination in Baie de Henne. "They took away soil and rock samples. Each person who worked for them got between 200 and 250 gourdes (US$4.65-US$5.81) a day. We in Baie de Henne are against any eventual mining because w