Venezuelan government will assume control of the largest gold mine in the country
05 November 2008, 06:31 pm ET
CARACAS, 5 Nov 2008 (AFP) --
The Venezuelan government will assume control of the Las Cristinas gold mine (Bolivar State, southeast), one of the world's largest oil fields currently in the hands of the Canadian company Crystallex, announced Wednesday Mines Minister, Rodolfo Sanz.
"This mine will be recovered and will be operated under the state administration," said Sanz, according to a communique distributed by the Ministry of Basic Industries and Mining.
Las Cristinas has proven and probable reserves of gold of 16.9 million ounces, according to Crystallex, a firm based in Toronto.
So far, there has been no official reaction on the part of Crystallex and the Venezuelan government has not given details on how this would be done taking control of Las Cristinas.
On Wednesday, shares of Crystallex, whose main asset is this gold mine in Venezuela, fell 13 cents, or 25.5% of its value and stood at 38 cents on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Crystallex, which won the award in 2002 for Las Cristinas, waiting in vain for months since the renewal of its environmental permit to begin extracting gold from 2010.
"Mining must be processed to generate jobs, bring technology into the country and chaining transformation processes," said Sanz according to the communique, which has collected statements from the minister to a local radio station in Venezuela.
The manager recalled that the state CVG Minerven already has control of two gold plants, which are extracted 19.8 kilograms of precious metal per day.
Since 2006, Venezuela was preparing a mechanism to repeal the system of temporary concessions accorded by the government and establish a model of joint ventures in which the state, through a state, will have the majority of the capital, as already happens on the farm oil.
In anticipation of the new scheme, Venezuela has not closed the doors of this sector to private capital. For example, the Russian company Rusoro, through its subsidiary Promotora Minera Guayana, operates normally in a number of gold deposits in Venezuela.
According to Sanz, from 2009, gold production in Venezuela will increase from 4.2 to 8.2 tons per year.
"This is a jump of more than 100% of production in just three months as a result of increased production capacity of the plants that are now owned by the state," said Sanz, according to the text.
The Venezuelan government will also seek to "rescue" other deposits in the country to increase the production capacity of minerals such as gold, diamond, bauxite and uranium, according to the statement of the Ministry of Mines.
Since 2007, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has nationalized strategic sectors of the economy in the oil, steel, electricity, cement and telecommunications.
RSR / bl / rs