in any case, the "no miner will invest in venezuela" argument is'nt really true imo..

GG has operations in mexico, honduras, gautamala

BARRICK has operations in peru, chile, africa. (and barrick is on the hunt). a deal with barrick makes even more sense because it could also get rid of the lingering vannessa issue.

for a pretty small initial investment one of these companies could gain a stake in LC and have their money somewhat protected with an ICsid claim if need be. personally i think they'd be better off to just "pay the bills" for awhile until things shake out in venezuela.

Barrick on the lookout for M&A opportunities

The group remains bullish on the gold price and says it is always looking for new deals.

Author: KALGOORLIE, Australia, (Reuters) -
Posted: Wednesday , 05 Aug 2009

By Joseph Chaney and James Regan -

Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO: Quote), the world's largest gold miner, said on Wednesday it was eyeing global M&A opportunities and would consider assets that include copper.

Barrick was a rumoured to be bidding for OZ Mineral's (OZL.AX: Quote) copper and gold mine Prominent Hill before OZ struck a $1.4 billion deal to sell most of its assets to China's Minmetals -- excluding Prominent Hill -- earlier this year.

"We are always looking at opportunities," Gary Halverson, regional president for Barrick Australia Pacific, said at the Diggers and Dealers conference in Western Australia.

"We are a gold company," he said, adding that Barrick was only interested in mines with that precious metal. "If copper is with that gold than we are certainly interested in that."

Halverson declined to comment on whether Barrick was currently looking at Prominent Hill.

In March, Australia required Minmetals to slice Prominent Hill out of its original takevover deal with OZ Minerals because the copper-gold mine is near the Woomera weapons-testing range in the deserts of outback Australia.

BULLISH ON GOLD

Halverson said Barrick has reasons to be bullish on the gold price outlook, but declined to give a specific price target.

Gold steadied on Wednesday after hitting a two-month high the previous day.

Spot gold XAU= was hovering around $964 per ounce on Wednesday, compared to New York's notional close of $966.75 per ounce. Spot gold rose to a two-month high of $970.05 on Tuesday.

On Monday, Sino Gold (SGX.AX: Quote)(1862.HK: Quote) chief operating officer Cobb Johnstone said he saw gold breaking the $1,000 mark, but not rising much beyond that in the next twelve months.

Last week, Barrick reported a stronger than expected quarterly net profit, while the company's chief executive Aaron Regent forecast lower mining costs in the quarters ahead.

Regent said at the time that a combination of lower commodity prices, looser labour markets and new lower-cost mines should reverse a trend of rising costs that has diluted the impact of high gold prices.

Total cash costs per ounce were $452 during the quarter, up from $434 in the year-before quarter, but down from $484 in the first quarter.

The company has maintained its production forecasts for 2009 and 2010 and said its key development projects were progressing on schedule.

But the CEO said the biggest impact would come from the company's latest generation of larger, lower-cost mines that have begun to come on line with initial production from the Buzwagi mine in Tanzania in May.