$ 540 million lost in gold production
BCV Technical warn of drop in foreign sales of the metal, reducing the number of exporters and rebound in the informal trade in 2009. This was because the Government disrespected private sector contracts

05 of March 2010 | 06:35 am - Andrés Rojas Jiménez



Venezuela's central bank estimates that 60 percent of gold production is informal and illegal, resulting in levels in the order of 15 thousand metric tons in 2009 and caused losses to the Treasury are calculated over 540 million approximately $. Some experts say they believe could be over 1 trillion dollars.

During a seminar organized on gold by the BCV, technicians of the institute's gold operations area warned the drop in foreign sales of the metal, reducing the number of exporters and rebound in the informal trade in 2009, without specifying the reasons this behavior.

However, sources close to the mining industry point out that some of that balance that alert officials BCV was because the Government disrespected private sector contracts. They also note that the exchange rate anchor for five years led to small gold producers prefer to do business without going through the Central Bank in order to obtain a higher parity than the official.

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