Hoped-for mining boom stalls amid regulatory worries

The 50-year-old man from the village scrambled up a grassy hill to ask the on-site manager of a US mining company for work. Joseph Tony had heard VCS Mining was bringing jobs, along with paved roads and electricity, to this corner of rural northern Haiti.

"Everybody is waiting," he said.

But Williamcite Noel, the only VCS employee in Haiti, had nothing to offer. Although the company received one of two gold mining permits in December 2012, the project known by the hill on which is located, Morne Bossa, was frozen two months later when parliament imposed a moratorium on mining activity amid deep concerns about whether the country has the capacity to adequately regulate such a complex industry.