The research was conducted during the last quarter of 2010 and the first semester of 2011. It included planning the field work, conducting interviews, collecting data, reviewing secondary sources of information, carrying out analysis, internal and external session discussions and writing up the final report. This document contributes to the ongoing understanding of the potential impacts and effects of the Pueblo Viejo mining project on the human development and general progress of the people of Dominican Republic. We explain the most significant and potential effects of the project and provide some key recommendations to effectively transform its effects into social capital and an improved level of human development. Current market conditions and new mining projects are providing extraordinary, positive and long term possibilities for improving the social and economic wellbeing in host communities through employment, productive linkages, taxes, and better organised communities. However, in order to transform these possibilities into realities, society as a whole, including the state, local governments, institutions, communities, individuals and mining companies must negotiate a common view that goes beyond the narrow interests of its constituent parts. This is the context of this research and we encourage our readers to go through this document with a critical, but optimistic view, thinking about the local communities' present and future.