chewy, i'm guessing you meant vannessa vs. venezuela? if not, let me know? minca is long in the wind

it's a lonnngggg and drawn out story that has been debated ad nauseum but it's a good question for those that dont know. so here's my recommendation for DD and a quick summary imo.

for DD start with a yahoo MB advanced search and read the AUGG threads (augg is very biased but the discussions will give you some idea of what happened with placer/vannessa/minca/kry...then go to google and research.

my personal summary on the vannessa/minca case is this.

placer had the LC concession (and right to mine it) for years but never broke ground because gold was $300 and the political situation was not worth the risk.

venezuela gave placer a deadline to mine, placer went past the deadline and venezuela pulled the concession. in a last minute effort (some say after the fact) placer sold its LC concession to vannessa for $50 and an assumption of debt ($120mil?). vannessa then went to venz supreme court, then went to icsid. they've been stuck there since 2004' but do look to be close to an award (if any)...in march ven filed for an appeal on jurisdiction (again)...if other cases can be an indicator of timeframe my guess is this. vannessa might see an award by june/july....

as a side note, i've always believed the vannessa case may be a part of why we dont have a permit yet. if vannessa cant prove they would be mining LC by now, how can they claim lost profit? i think icsid could be dragging thier feet to see what happens with LC, and VEN dragging thier feet to see an end to the vannessa case....LC is definately cursed!