Venezuela's environment minister said on Saturday that the government would put national interests first in the mining sector and forbid mining in a biodiverse forest reserve that is home to two of the country's largest gold concessions.
Venezuelan Minister Yubiri Ortega did not give a direct answer when asked if the government was planning to nationalize the mines.
She said, however, that Venezuela was “taking control” in order to “save and appropriate what is ours.”
The government will consider future underground mining concessions as well as those that are currently under revision, Ortega said.
But it will not permit open-pit mines that cause environmental degradation and contaminate the country’s water supply with cyanide and other toxic chemicals, she said.
She said the government would forbid mining in the Imataca Forest Reserve, which covers about 3.5 million hectares and is rich with gold, diamonds, iron, bauxite and other minerals.
Ortega said the government needed to “take measures” to avoid ruining the reserve’s sensitive ecology and complained that foreign companies and illegal miners had exploited Venezuela’s gold, coal and diamond deposits and left only “garbage” behind.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has clashed with international gold-mining companies in recent months over permits to operate in the country’s southern Bolivar state.
In May, Crystallex International Corp of Toronto said the Environment Ministry had denied it a permit for its Las Cristinas gold mine.
The company estimates that Las Cristinas — located in the Imataca Forest — holds about 480 million grams of gold.
Crystallex said in a statement on Tuesday that it has filed an appeal with the ministry.
Crystallex vice president Richard Marshall could not be reached by telephone on Saturday, but he said in May that “this would be the final permit” to complete the mine’s construction phase.
The company had hoped Las Cristinas would start producing in 2010.
Plans for the company’s two other Venezuelan mines, Tomi and La Victoria, could be exhausted this year, Marshall said.
Last year, Crystallex produced more than 935,000g of Venezuelan gold.
Also affected is Gold Reserve Inc of Spokane, Washington, which announced in May that its permit for last year to begin construction on the Las Brisas gold mining project — also in the Imataca Forest — had been rescinded.
The company said it is meeting with government officials to resolve the issue.
On Thursday, US-based Hecla Mining Co announced a US$25 million deal to sell its Venezuela subsidiaries to Rusoro Mining Ltd of Vancouver, British Columbia.
Venezuela’s mining ministry had said it was considering rescinding Hecla’s concessions over a labor dispute.
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