HUGE GOLD MINE
"I doubt (Crystallex) will roll over and say this is the end of it, but this is confirmation of what I always thought was going to be the ultimate end game," said Barry Allan, analyst at Research Capital in Toronto.
Allan is one of several analysts who dropped coverage of Crystallex this year due to frustration over the permitting of Las Cristinas.
Bringing Rusoro into the project adds a new twist to a decades-long saga over the development of the massive Las Cristinas reserves, which have passed through the hands of three other mining companies since the 1990s.
Chavez offered Las Cristinas to Crystallex in 2002, prompting another Canadian mining company called Vannessa Ventures to file an international arbitration suit on the grounds it had the rights to operate the mine.
Vancouver-based Rusoro currently operates the Choco 10 and Isidora Mines, and processes the ore through the Choco Mill facility, according to the company's website.
Idaho-based Hecla Mining Company in June said it sold its Venezuela subsidiaries to Rusoro at a sizable loss. (Additional reporting by Deisy Buitrago in Caracas and Cameron French in Toronto; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
