Not sure if this artice was posted due to all the news out there. Some was. See highlighted areas.

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Gold Reserve rejects Rusoro overtures to acquire Venezuelan gold mining assets

Gold Reserve President Doug Belanger, who has tenaciously spent years coaxing the Brisas project ever closer to production, isn’t about to sell his company to Rusoro Mining for a $90 million all-share bid.

Author: Dorothy Kosich
Posted: Thursday , 28 Aug 2008

RENO, NV -

Spokane-based Gold Reserve (TSX, AMEX: GRZ) Wednesday said its board has rejected an all share offer by Canadian junior miner Rusoro Mining (TSX-V: RML), calling the bid "inadequate and not in the best interests of the company's shareholders."

Furthermore, Gold Reserve President Doug Belanger pointed out "that we had not authorized any of our advisors to speak to Rusoro and/or its advisors" about a sale of its Brisas gold project in Venezuela.

Rusoro, which acquired Gold Fields' Venezuelan interests including the Choco 10 Mine, recently bought Hecla Mining's former La Camorra unit. As Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez continues with his nationalization agenda, thus far expropriating oil refineries, the country's largest steel manufacturer and cement companies, Rusoro has indicated it is more than willing to let the Venezuelan Government own 50% of La Camorra.

However, the political ill winds which had stymied the Brisas copper-gold project and other foreign-owned gold projects in the Bolivar state may be shifting, allowing Belanger to negotiate from a position of strength. While Venezuela's Ministry of the Environment had originally blocked gold projects, citing potential environmental impacts on the Imataca Forest Reserve, the agency's attitude has apparently changed reportedly due to pressure from the Chavez Administration.

Merly Garcia, Vice Minister of Environmental (MinAmb) management and administration, recently said that Venezuela will limit goldmining in Bolivar state to a 4 million hectare drainage area of the Rio Cuyuni near the mining town of Las Claritas and east over the border into neighboring Guyana. The government will reportedly limit mining activities to the jungle region of the Imataca Forest, according to a report by Bloomberg News.

Newspaper reports also said the Chavez Administration has called on the Ministries of Basic Industries and Mines (Mibam) and Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (MinAmb) to agree to policies that will allow the resumption of gold mining in the area where Crystallex's Las Cristinas and Gold Reserve's Brisas gold projects are located.

In an August 21, 2008 letter to the chairman of the Gold Reserve board and the company's chief executive officer, Rusoro President George Salamis offered two Rusoro shares for each Gold Reserve share. Among Rusoro's current shareholders are Peter Hambro Mining and Gold Fields.

However Belanger responded, "This highly conditioned expression of interest attributed a $90 million value to Gold Reserve's equity, which the Board determine was inadequate and not in the best interests of shareholders. For example, the expression of interest did not take into account Gold Reserve's current financial position and gave little value for our Company's proven and probable reserves of 10.2 million ounces of gold and 1.4 billion pounds of copper, the mobile CAT equipment, the equipment currently being manufactured, the extensive intangibles attached to the Brisas Project and the value of the Choco 5 property.

Belanger noted that the company current has $105 million of cash on hand.