Sound familiar at the end?

Venezuela says seven African states will join mining firm
Tuesday, 29 September 2009 16:42 EDT

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela said Tuesday that seven African nations would join in the formation of a transcontinental mining corporation designed to give poor countries greater control over resource development.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez, the corporation proposed multi-state "during the weekend at a summit of South American and African nations (ASA).

State media said Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, Angola and Tanzania have signed letters of intent to create the "Mining Corporation ASA, which will initially focus on the iron.

"He sealed this alliance, which envisages the establishment of joint ventures for exploration, geological prospecting, production and installation of small plants for the processing of iron ore and steel processing," the official news agency of Venezuela, ABN .

The Minister of Basic Industries and Mines of Venezuela, Rodolfo Sanz, said that Venezuela would send steel producing technical equipment to Mauritania and Tanzania within 30 days.

"We will contribute to these countries to calculate their reserves and their geological shelters so they know what they really underground," he said.

The goal is to "prevent the industrial countries continue to suck the subsoil of these nations," said Sanz, whose socialist government continues with a line aggressively "imperialist" in international affairs.

The weekend summit was dominated by large proposals for South American-African cooperation and called for poor nations to unite against Western economic domination.

But analysts say that the Venezuelan government has a history of not carrying forward some of the eagerly announces international initiatives for many.

(Writing by Andrew Cawthorne, editing by David Gregorio Spanish)

http://lta.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idLTASIE58S28120090929