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The September 10 framework creates no binding legal obligations for either government — Dominican reporting confirms it functions as a roadmap, and it's one of at least 27 similar frameworks Washington has signed worldwide.
- Correcting an earlier account of this story: both the 100-million-ton and revised 150-million-ton rare-earth estimates for Pedernales came from President Abinader himself, a year apart, not from two officials citing conflicting figures.
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A feasibility study to confirm whether the Ávila deposit is commercially minable isn't due until 2027, and the country's entire current mining workforce — 7,332 direct jobs — predates any rare-earths production.
The Dominican Republic and the United States signed a critical minerals and rare earths cooperation framework on September 10, and the fine print carries no dollar figure, no mandated investment, and no enforceable obligation for either government.
That gap between the announcement and the actual text lands hardest on the people who would feel it most directly: residents of Pedernales, the historically poor southwestern province sitting on what Santo Domingo describes as one of the region's largest untapped rare-earth deposits, and the diaspora in New York and Miami who would be the first to hear if a relative found work because of it.
A Roadmap, Not a Financing Deal
The framework was signed by Foreign Minister Víctor-Ito Bisonó and U.S. Ambassador Leah F. Campos, with Energy and Mines Minister Joel Santos looking on. Under it, the two governments agreed to jointly flag mining projects of shared interest, open financing channels, shield their respective critical-minerals markets, and knit together a supply chain running from the ground to finished, separated material. Bisonó called it an opportunity to approach "with long-term vision and a very clear compass." Campos framed it more broadly, saying the deal is "not just about minerals — it's about sovereignty, security, and shared prosperity."
None of that binds either side to anything. Dominican outlets covering the signing describe a document with no legal force under either country's law, no enforceable rights, and no penalty if either government simply walks away later. That matches the pattern Washington has followed elsewhere: the framework is one of at least 27 similar cooperation agreements the United States has now signed with other countries, part of a broader push to loosen China's grip on rare-earth processing.
The two headline tonnage estimates for Pedernales did not come from two officials contradicting each other, as an earlier version of this story suggested. President Luis Abinader put the preliminary figure at roughly 100 million tons in February 2025, during a joint appearance with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Santos referenced that same estimate himself a few months later. In his February 2026 address to the National Assembly, Abinader raised the number to more than 150 million confirmed tons, a figure Santos then repeated at an international mining conference in Toronto the following month.
The Diaspora's Real Question: Jobs or Just Geology?
Camiperd director Martín Valerio, the industry's own trade group representative, put the caveat plainly: "knowing a mineral exists doesn't mean it's already commercially exploitable." Santos has said a formal feasibility study, built to international NI 43-101 standards, will not be ready before 2027. The country's entire mining sector today — gold, nickel, ferronickel and everything else combined — supports 7,332 direct jobs and roughly 25,000 indirect ones, and that headcount predates any rare-earths output whatsoever. For a family in Washington Heights or Hialeah hoping a cousin back home lands work tied to this specific agreement, the honest answer is: not soon, and not guaranteed.
Pedernales has been promised transformation before. A tourism megaproject at Cabo Rojo was pitched in 2022 at roughly 20,000 direct jobs over a decade; a proposed private spaceport near the town of Oviedo followed in 2026 with a figure near 25,000, before its own developer quietly revised that down to somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000 within months. One recent analysis of the Cabo Rojo project counted three separate job estimates across three years of official statements, with no public explanation for why the numbers kept moving.
Land tension has already surfaced near the minerals zone, too: in April 2025, families in the farming community of Las Mercedes said a militarized environmental unit destroyed homes, fencing and livestock enclosures during a series of evictions, presenting no court order and citing only instructions from the president when residents and even a local prosecutor pushed back.
What Comes Next
The geology predates all of this diplomacy. European-funded surveys first flagged rare-earth traces in Pedernales' bauxite back in 2010 and 2011, and the government formally set aside the Ávila reserve for study in 2018. President Abinader created the state mining company Emidom by decree in August 2024 to manage exploration, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has since assisted with testing on the ground. Four days before the Washington signing, the Dominican government struck a separate and more concrete deal with the European Union: a 538,709.50-euro mineral-characterization study carried out with the University of Barcelona. The state has also said it needs to spend $30 million a year on exploration alone, and a new mining law — the first full overhaul of the sector's rules in 55 years — is headed to Congress. Until the feasibility study lands and the tonnage figure is finally locked in, the framework signed this month remains what its own text says it is: an intention, not an investment.
