Canadian gold miner Crystallex International, which owns one of Latin America's biggest gold deposits, will raise C$60,06-million in a share sale, the firm said on Friday.

Crystallex is waiting for the Venezuelan government to issue a permit to enable it to start building its Las Cristinas project, in the country's Bolivar state.

The company said that a syndicate of underwriters led by Macquarie Capital Markets Canada had agreed to buy 28,6-million units of Crystallex at a price of C$2,10 each. Each unit comprised one Crystallex share and half a common share purchase warrant.

The company would use the money to develop the Las Cristinas project, which is expected to have an initial production of 300 000 oz/y of gold, to service debt and for general corporate purposes, it said in a statement.

Crystallex revised the capital costs for the mine upward in November, to $356-million, of which it said $112-million had already been incurred.

STILL WAITING...

Crystallex signed a mining operation agreement with State-owned Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana (CVG) in 2002, and completed a feasibility study on the Las Castinas project in 2004, but is still waiting for government approval to start building the mine.

Investor relations VP Richard Marshall said on Friday that, while the company had regular communication with the CVG, there was no news on the timing of when the permit would be issued.

“We have been advised that it will be issued...we have complied with all the requirements and now it is a matter of waiting for the issuance of the permit,” he said from Toronto

The company said in June last year that it had been informed that the Ministry had approved its environemntal-impact study for Las Cristinas and that the final conditions to permitting approval were for the company to post a compliance-guarantee bond and pay certain taxes for the issuance of the environmental permit.

The bond has been posted and the taxes paid, but the permit has not been forthcoming.

The project's measured and indicated resources are currently estimated at 20,76-million ounces, which contain proven and probable reserves of 16,86-million ounces at a $550 per ounce gold price, according to a September resource update by Crystallex. (Although it should be noted that spot gold rose to a record high on Friday, of $923,40/oz.