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Crystallex International Corporation is a Canadian-based gold company with a successful record of developing and operating gold mines in Venezuela and elsewhere in South America

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Message: Dateline....November 3rd

November 3, 2010, 2:02 a.m. | Today Laura is president of Venrus Paredes, a joint venture in Venezuela and Russia Ricardo Gutierrez evaluated by their peers the contract between

CVG and Crystallex 350

billion invested in first phase Crystallex Carmen Carrillo plan

Special World

Eight years have passed since the adoption of the operating contract to develop the Las Cristinas mine in the Canadian company Crystallex, and is still paralyzed. The delay by the Ministry of Environment to grant the permits environment that allows the involvement of the area is the cause.

From January to August 2003, the Economic Development Standing Committee of the National Assembly (AN) discussed extensively the legal, technical and socioeconomic Cristinas Mining Project. This is reviewed in October 2007. Three years ago.

By that time the decree was in effect 1757 that established the operation of the gold reserves through a state enterprise.

Of course, the investigation by the parliamentarians of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela included review of contract with Placer Dome, and the satisfaction that the State terminated the partnership with this private company of Canadian origin.

Ricardo Gutierrez, who was then chairman of the committee of the National Assembly, assessed by their peers in detail the agreement between the Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana (CVG), as concessionaire, and the company Crystallex, as operator, to develop the mining project Las Cristinas 4, 5, 6 and 7.

For Members was successful once the decision of the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) to deposit in the CVG the granting of Las Cristinas, "because it is the largest gold deposit in the country, whose dealership is a state enterprise."

In that same report notes that an analysis was made of the agreement between CVG and Crystallex dealership and International, as operator of the mine development.

The contract was signed on December 17, 2002 and in it the operator is authorized to make the investments and work necessary to restart and run the Las Cristinas mining project to build a plant and process the gold ore for its marketing and sales.

Members Crystallex were outstanding that had made investments in the social field and therefore were followed in the communities.

The chairman of the Standing Committee on Economic Development informed the meeting that he had talked with senior officials of the Ministry of Environment, which had been granted a license to Crystallex and there was no legal impediment to completing the process.

Luis Felipe Cottin, president at the time in Venezuela Crystallex in the meeting with the members mentioned the legal compliance, contractual and technical that his client acted and have recorded and corrected everything that was requested, "so therefore do not understand the reason for the delay in granting the permits to begin construction. " He said the company has a tremendous burden on the payroll, maintenance and socio-economic costs, which is affected by the delay.

He said at the time that the negative effects of cyanide are discarded, "it was a predictable investment of 5,300 million Bs in a plant that prevents degradation and damage to people."

This meeting was also attended by Laura Walls, by then representative of the Ministry of Basic Industries and Mining, Mibam, who "posed no obstacle to granting the permits, since she represented the ministry had already issued the appropriate license for the initiation of the project. "

Jorge Velasco, representative of the CVG, said that the corporation has the feasibility study. "Naturally, as concessionaire, expects that permission be granted as soon as possible."

Sergio Rodríguez, director of planning at the Ministry of Environment of the time, referred in general to environmental issues.

And the conclusions are

The committee urges the authorities of the Ministry of Environment to grant the respective licenses allowing the start of mining development.

That's been eight years. None of the officers involved and herein referred to the 1757 decree, which allows us to infer that they knew or could it be that no impact?

Today, Laura Walls, is president of Venrus, a joint venture in which they are associated with Venezuela and Russia.

More details

The granting of Las Cristinas in 1964 he obtained Lemon Dot Whitney Culver, wife of a British general named Lemon, who was also a geologist.

That concession comes by decree of President, the Guyanese Raul Leoni. Lemon, General, had been with adecos exiles in Costa Rica, including Rómulo Betancourt, during the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez.

Had also accompanied Jimmy Angel, who discovered Angel Falls and Canaima, in the act of bivouac. In 1964 an Italian named Amalfi Grossi famous was the one who handled the issue until he died.

As is known, the mining towns have always had a particular way to develop, between marginality and disorder. Las Cristinas and surrounding towns were no exception, and people always protested for more rights. In a telephone conversation with Ezequiel Jiménez, he recalls that he and Victor Gonzalez, owner of media, and Andrea Padovani, paid imprisonment for having confronted Grossi, demanding rights for the mining town.

For some highlights Jiménez, Padovani today is the most representative Agapov Group and attended last Sunday with Alo Presidente Hugo Chávez.

Years later, also in Las Cristinas, in a protest of miners, is a prisoner's current mayor Sifontes in Bolivar, Charles Chancellor, elected with 72% of the vote, but even so it has been released, and William Saud, Mining sector leader, who is dying in jail with a skin cancer, because none of the judges even authorized his transfer to a clinic.

They just appeal to the court for enforcement of half the sentence, why should enjoy the benefits of freedom, as established by law, but the appeal court decided that both are highly dangerous and should not leave prison .

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