(KRY) Chavez gets this one Mid-August "DJ Venezuela Lawmakers To Pass Mining Reform By Mid-August
07/13/2006
Dow Jones News Services
(Copyright © 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
CARACAS (Dow Jones)--Venezuelan lawmakers aim to approve a mining law reform by the middle of August, a mining lawmaker said Thursday.
"We expect to pass this by August 15, so it can go to President (Hugo Chavez) for final approval," Jose Ramon Rivero, the lawmaker in charge of the congressional mining subcomission, told Dow Jones Newswires in a phone interview.
"Once the law change is approved the government will likely step up takeovers of non-producing mines," Rivero said.
Assembly members are working on making changes to a controversial mining law reform that allow Chavez to revamp concessions and contracts found to be idle.
Chavez's government could choose to keep a particular mining area, reassigning it to small-scale miners, or hammer new deals with the companies currently in control.
A number of foreign mining companies currently operate in the Andean country, including Canadian companies Crystallex International Corp. (KRY) and Gold Reserve Inc. (GRZ), South Africa's Gold Fields (GFI), and U.S. company Hecla Mining Co. (HL), among others.
Chavez as vowed to seize idle mines to make way for more productive ventures that provide jobs for poor Venezuelans living in mining communities.
-By Raul Gallegos, Dow Jones Newswires, 58-212-564-1339; raul.gallegos@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
07-13-06 1604ET
Copyright (c) 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. |
