Chavez gets a little more walking around money...
CARACAS, Venezuela, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Venezuela plans to revoke some gold and diamond concessions and create a new state mining company as part of a push to increase government control over the sector, President Hugo Chavez said.
"We have decided to revoke a group of mining concessions given by past government and this government," Chavez said in a speech late Sunday night to hundreds of supporters gathered in front of the presidential palace to celebrate his return from a trip to the United Nations last week.
Chavez did not specify which mining projects would be taken over, but last week Basic Industries and Mines Minister Victor Alvarez said inactive mines could be handed over to small mining cooperatives supported by the government.
The government will no longer authorize new gold and diamond mining concessions, Alvarez said.
"No more concessions. We have decided to create a Venezuela mining company which would function through cooperatives ... to exploit reasonably those riches," Chavez said.
Officials have said the new Venezuelan mining company would be similar to PDVSA, the state energy company of the world's No. 5 oil exporter.
The populist president has launched a broad campaign to review energy and mineral contracts signed before he came to office that he says are robbing Venezuela of its natural resources.
The measures came after groups of small miners protesting delays in permits and demanding more concessions blocked a major highway to Brazil and clashed with troops in the southern Bolivar state, where much of the country's mining operations are located.
Among major foreign companies mining in Venezuela are Canada's Crystallex (KRY.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) , Bolivar Gold (BGC.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) , U.S. firm Hecla (HL.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and China's Shandong Gold (600547.S: Quote, Profile, Research) . Hecla is the country's largest and most active gold producer.
Crystallex said it expects to start producing at the huge Las Cristinas gold mine in Bolivar 16 months after the government clears its environmental permit.
Left-winger Chavez has made land reform and redistribution of idle farms and factories a cornerstone of his self-proclaimed socialist revolution for the poor. Critics say his reform campaigns threaten private property and that he is trying to impose Cuba-style communism. |
