Haiti has the World’s Second Largest Iridium Deposits

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Iridium is one of the rarest metals on earth, known for its strong corrosion resistance, high melting point, and hardness.

As difficult to work with as it is rare, iridium is found in large quantities in Haiti’s southeast, which has the second largest reserves in the world. This metal is today worth more than gold and Bitcoin. Its resistance to high temperatures and corrosion makes it almost indispensable in the manufacture of aircraft engines and deep water pipelines. Its exploitation could be a lever for the revival of the Haitian economy and the creation of millions of jobs, argues the economics professor, Dr. Henry Vixamar.

Haiti has one of the largest iridium reserves in the world. The country is second in iridium reserves after South Africa, says economics development specialist, Dr. Henry Vixamar. He says that this assessment comes from South African experts following a study carried out in Haiti in 2014. This information and its sources are also known by Haiti’s Bureau of Mines and Energy (BME), emphasizes the professor.

Haiti’s iridium reserves are located in its Southeast Department. Besides the village of Beloc, where iridium was discovered in early 1990 by Alan K. Hildebrand, a graduate student at the University of Arizona, Dr. Vixamar argues that the noble metal also exists in the town of Bainet.

For Professor Vixamar, the exploitation of these reserves could allow the revival of Haiti’s economy as well as the creation of millions of jobs in several sectors of the national economy. He made his remarks on Le Point on Radio Métropole.

Three times more expensive than gold

Iridium is a very profitable metal, especially during the year 2021. During 2020, the average price per ounce (12.5 grams) of the metal was $2,550 US. But for the month of March 2021, its value had reached $6,000 US per ounce, nearly three times the price of gold for the same month.

Experts associate this price increase with the dependence of its supply on a single extraction zone (South Africa), and with “disruptions related to technical problems within the South African mining group Anglo American Platinum last year, as well as measures to restrict the movement of people in the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” BFM Business media says.

Used in several industries

Iridium is one of the rarest metals on earth. It was first discovered in 1803 by Smithson Tennant. This metal is known for its strong corrosion resistance, high melting point, and hardness. These characteristics make it particularly suitable for certain industrial applications.

Its resistance to high temperatures and corrosion makes it almost indispensable in the manufacture of aircraft engines, deep water pipelines, and automotive catalytic converters. It is also used in various quantities in the manufacture of medical and electronic devices, spark plugs, watches, and compasses.

Indeed, iridium is used in particular in the manufacture of high-strength alloys that can withstand high temperatures. Very often it is included in platinum alloys as a hardening agent.

“One of the world’s largest refiners of platinum group metals, Heraeus Precious Metals, says iridium is also used in the manufacture of 5G smartphones, and high-end products requiring the use of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs),” reports BBC Africa.

“Iridium is also effective in ensuring the disinfection of water carried by ships in their ballast tanks,” according to BFM Business. “But also in the field of energy, in particular for the manufacture of hydrogen fuel cells.”

Translated by Haïti Liberté from the original French on the website Koukouwouj.

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30 COMMENTS

  1. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the top three countries with the largest known deposits of iridium are South Africa, Russia, and the United States. Other countries that have significant deposits of iridium include China, Canada, and Colombia. There is no data to prove that Haiti has significant reserves that are in the top few countries. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) is the most significant source of world data on this subject. Do you have a link to facts that Henry Vixamar claims or any factual data to show Haiti has the 2nd largest deposits? It seems like complete lies when I research fact-based websites.

    • Thank you. I remember a year following the earthquake there was another similar bizarre rumor that was spread by Ginette and Daniel Mathurin about Haiti having the most significant oil reserve in the world 😅. With all due respect, I don’t think the country has the capacity and the technology to determine such an amount of mineral deposits for comparison purposes. I’ve googled multiple times and I couldn’t find a single legitimate source to confirm that.

      • Look into the geological reports of the 1980s to see the truth. This has been erased in the last decade. The fact is well know that this iridium came from a meteorite that exploded in the gulf of Mexico millions of years ago. South Africa and Haiti were, forever, listed as the two countries that have exploitable iridium deposits. The one in Haiti is in the purest form.

        • Thank you. Information is power. The real truth is not in the internet but in the libraries and other documented articles. They have twisted and manipulated the truth for their own selfish gains

    • That is what they want you to believe, it’s not by coincident; that an assassination of the president; took place when they started the mining of this thing; similar today instability in the Congo today. Political move to get what they want to cheaper.

    • If you convinced that Haiti do not have these resources, leave the country alone. Let the country invite the other countries with advance knowledge come do their own studies with the hope of allowing them to have access and also help us mine it for a profit.

    • It is understandable that you need to hold on to that Image of white people being chosen by God to rule over the earth and the other non whites who inhabit the Earth, but your USGS lies to keep us under an illusion while they raid the non white nations of the minerals that would make nonwhite countries equal to or surpassing to yours. You need to focus on the destruction The United states Geological thieving organizations have done to destroy others with your mumbojumbo . continue with your delusions while truth sets us free

    • When do US killed Libyan president Gaddafi they claim he was a terrorist when that was clearly a lie,u.s killed him because he was the one to resurrect the black star liner and liberate millions of Nubians or African across the globe of there every day economic struggle of the white man’s world

    • When do US killed Libyan president Gaddafi they claim he was a terrorist when that was clearly a lie,u.s killed him because he was the one to resurrect the black star liner and liberate millions of Nubians or African across the globe of there every day economic struggle of the white man’s world

    • So you pretty much looking for America data to say that its there before you can consider in believing it? Interesting, the same America who refused to recognize Haiti’s independence until years later and decided to invade Haiti to rewrite their constitution so they can control their narrative? Naw no such Data would ever come from the U.S about Haiti.

  2. So, the USGS says this or that and ta dah, it’s the truth…. Here we go again with this misinformation, we know what’s best, that’s just a rumor so on and so forth. In the meantime, Haiti, sell your mineral rights, so you can be exploited, giving the wealth to a few vs sharing it with all the people of Haiti.

    • I wouldn’t be so quick to call it misinformation. I am a proud American 1st generation born here. My family is Haitian so I also love the land of my mother and farther’s birth. It will be a cold day in hell before I ever trust anything coming from our Government’s mouth!!!!!!!!!

  3. I believe that this is true about the iridium Haiti as a rare and have all these resources that are rich. That why for many year it have been one of that places that other countries have been trying to take over granted that we were one of the first black and caribbean countries to get our independence from the french. they all know what Haiti is sitting on and they want it so bad from the united stated the the french. we are going to keep what we have and fought so had the have!!

  4. Received: 12 April 1999 / Accepted: 16 October 1999
    Introduction
    At El Caribe, Guatemala, we reported the presence of
    up to 10±15% altered glass spherules near the top of
    the breccia, which is located stratigraphically near the
    K/T boundary, and linked these to the Chicxulub
    impact (Stinnesbeck et al. l997). We also noted that
    analyses of Ir by R. Rocchia failed to show anomalous
    concentrations at the top of the breccia (Stinnesbeck
    et al. l997, p. 703). In this short note we amend this
    statement and elaborate as to the actual Ir values
    reported by Rocchia and the precise stratigraphic posi-
    tion of the Ir analyses made by him in our section as
    well as the section collected by Fourcade et al. (l998).
    We then place these findings within the context of
    new geological studies in Haiti and Guatemala.
    In our original publication we stated that ªSome
    breccias contain up to approximately 10±15% spher-
    ules but no anomalous iridium concentrations were
    detectedº (Stinnesbeck et al. 1997; R. Rocchia, pers.
    commun.). This statement is erroneous in that the
    samples analysed for us by R. Rocchia are above the
    breccia and no breccia samples were analysed in our
    study. However, in a separate study of the same out-
    crop locality by Fourcade et al. (1998), R. Rocchia
    analysed a breccia sample with altered spherules and
    recorded ªa low but significant iridium concentration
    (0.4 ng/g)º (Fourcade et al. 1998, p. 50). This finding
    strengthens our observation that the top of the breccia
    is linked to a spherule-producing event near the end
    of the Cretaceous, which may be the Chicxulub event.
    The samples we sent to R. Rocchia for Ir analysis
    were from a 10-cm-thick shale interval between 30
    and 40 cm above the top of the breccia (see Fig. 1).
    Three samples (C16, C17, C18) from the top of the
    marly limestone and base of the shale layer yielded
    only background values of 0.08 ng/g; sample C19 was
    lost. Sample C20 near the top of the shale layer
    yielded 0.23 ng/g and Fourcade et al. (l998, sample 7,
    p. 50) reported a value of 0.2 ng/g for the same inter-
    val; sample C21 at the base of the overlying marly
    limestone yielded 0.15 ng/g. In another shale layer
    1.2 m above the top of the breccia, Fourcade et al.
    (l998, p.50) reported another small Ir anomaly of
    0.1 ng/g (Fig. 1). Hence, there are three intervals of
    elevated Ir values: at the K/T boundary, in the lower
    Parvularugoglobigerina eugubina (Pla) Zone, and near
    the base of the Plb-c Zone.
    The K/T Ir anomalies are frequently above l.0 ng/g;
    therefore, we do not generally consider Ir values of
    0.1±0.2 ng/g as significant. However, our recent studies
    in Haiti and Guatemala reveal similar small multiple
    Ir anomalies as observed in the Guatemala sections,
    and that leads us to reconsider our previous viewpoint.
    An important aspect of these small Ir anomalies is
    that they are stratigraphically separated. The first and
    most significant Ir value (0.4 ng/g) is reported by
    Fourcade et al. (1998, p. 50) at the top of the breccia
    together with altered glass spherules within ªa matrix
    of argillaceous limestone with very small planktonic
    foraminifers (P. eugubina and/or E. fringa)º…. ªDa-
    nian species of dinoflagellate Membranilarnacia?
    tenella were also foundº. This suggests that the spher-
    ule-bearing top of the breccia was deposited in the
    early Danian Zone P1a (P. eugubina Zone) as shown
    in Fig. 1 and similar to Haiti, as discussed herein.
    The second intriguing aspect is the slightly elevated
    Ir concentration of 0.23 and 0.15 ng/g at the top of the
    shale layer and at the base of the overlying marly
    limestone, respectively, and approximately 40 cm
    G. Keller
    Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton,
    NJ 08544, USA
    W. Stinnesbeck ())
    Geologisches Institut, Universität Karlsruhe, Postfach 6980,
    D-76128 Karlsruhe, Germany
    Tel.: +0721-6082137
    Fax: +0721-6082138
    e-mail: wolfgang.stinnesbeck@bio-geo.uni-karlsruhe.de

  5. Not only they stealing our resources also they have been mistreated us , Haitian let not lost our abilities to fight and protect our resources.

  6. I hope Haiti has iridium, that the country exploits the mineral and that Haitian people remain in Haiti instead of sucking the blood out of the U.S.

    • The US does way worse than blood sucking.
      How many democratically elected leaders have the US overthrown?
      We can start with Jean Bertrand Aristide.

      1893, Hawaii: Queen Liliʻuokalani
      1933, Cuba: The US backed military leader Fulgencio Batista’s coup to overthrow the Cuban government. After Fidel Castro violently ousted Batista and established the Western hemisphere’s first communist regime, President John F. Kennedy attempted to overthrow Castro’s government in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. Since 1961 there were several attampts to verthrow the Cuban Government andassinate Fidel Castro.
      Iran, 1953: Mohammed Mossadegh
      Guatemala, 1954: Jacobo Árbenz
      Congo, 1960: Patrice Lumumba
      Dominican Republic, 1961: Rafael Trujillo,
      South Vietnam, 1963: Ngo Dinh Diem
      Brazil, 1964: Joao Goulart
      Chile, 1973: Salvador Allende
      Nicaragua, 1981-90: President Ronald Reagan’s administration secretly and illegally sold arms to Iran in order to fund Contras, a group the CIA had recruited and organized to fight the socialist Sandinista government led by Daniel Ortega.
      Afghanistan, 2001:
      When the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001, it established an interim government led by Hamid Karzai to replace the warring Taliban government and the oppositional Northern Alliance.
      2003, Iraq: In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq and overthrew Saddam Hussein’s government.
      2011, Libya: On 19 2011 March, the US and NATO began a military intervention which resulted in the murder Muammar Gaddafi regime and its supporters.

      The US should be grateful to Haiti and Hatians for weakening Napoleon Buonaparte’s France to the point that he sold the Louisiana Territory which doubled the size of the US,

      • Aristide killed babies by throwing them in the air and catching them with a sword. You are a disgusting person defending this criminal. Shame on you

    • You mean Haiti sucking US blood! I’m sure a person hearing this would shocked. Pleade read all the history of US Haiti linkage

    • If you believe Haiti is draining the life out of the United States, you need to educate yourself by studying history. In Savannah, Georgia, Haitians bravely sacrificed their lives to help America gain independence from England. Haitians have every right to be in the United States and enjoy the land just like any other individual.

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