You are here

Chavez expects gold to be back in Venezuela in 'weeks'

Section: Daily Dispatches

Chavez Officially Nationalizes Venezuela's Gold Industry

From Agence France-Presse
via Google News
Tuesday, August 23, 2011

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g84hDUj7Fk7MVAlFViWGF...

CARACAS -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez signed into law Tuesday the official nationalization of the country's gold mining industry and announced the impending arrival of the first shipment of repatriated gold.

Chavez signed the "natural law that reserves the exploration and management of gold, as well as the connected activities, to the state" during a ministerial meeting broadcast by state media.

"In order to reinforce national independence, economic independence ... I sign this national decree for gold," the Venezuelan president added.

In December, Venezuelan lawmakers granted Chavez extraordinary legislative powers to govern the country by decree until the middle of next year.

... Dispatch continues below ...



ADVERTISEMENT

Lewis E. Lehrman on How to Solve the U.S. Debt Problem

Lewis E. Lehrman, chairman of the Lehrman Institute, sponsor of The Gold Standard Now project, advises that to reduce the $1 1/2 trillion U.S. deficit, the Republican Party must initiate an investment program.

Working Americans are not saving, which enables the banks to lead the country into a cycle of debt, leverage, boom, panic, and bust.

Lehrman says: Eliminating the budget deficit of a trillion and a half dollars cannot be done overnight. The proposal by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan was very dramatic -- one Republican called it radical -- but it was not happily received. The solution, of course, is to design an American program for prosperity, because you can solve these entitlement problems with a growing economy. We need a tremendous program of investment, and investment comes from savings. When you pay savers, middle-income professionals, and working people 0 percent at the bank, you are not going to encourage them to save. Then we are left with a bank cycle of debt, leverage, boom, panic, and bust."

To read more and to sign up for The Gold Standard Now's free, noncommercial, weekly report, "Prosperity through Gold," please visit:

http://www.thegoldstandardnow.org/gata



During the ceremony Chavez brandished a gold bullion from the Central Bank of Venezuela's coffers, which holds 154 tons of gold, an amount worth $7.2 billion.

Last week Chavez announced his intention to nationalize the country's gold sector in order to prevent "mafias" from exploiting Venezuela's natural resources. Illegal mining makes up 60 percent of local production in the gold sector.

Major producers include the state-run Minerven, the Russian Rusoro, which mines gold in the southern Bolivar state, and Cuba's Geominsal, which carries out assessments, all in association with the state.

Chavez also announced plans to repatriate 211.35 tons of gold from foreign countries. About 80 percent of the $11 billion worth of reserves are held in Britain, principally in the coffers of the Bank of England.

"I believe that the first shipment will arrive in the following weeks," Chavez said Tuesday.

The Venezuelan leader also announced that he expects to move some $6.2 billion in cash reserves from banks in Switzerland, Britain, France, and the United States to markets in "friendly" countries such as China, Russia, and Brazil.

The leading oil exporter in South America, Venezuela has the 15th largest gold reserves in the world, with an estimated 365.8 tons, according to the World Gold Council.

* * *

Join GATA here:

Toronto Resource Investment Conference
Thursday-Friday, September 15-16, 2011
Sheraton Toronto Centre

http://cambridgehouse.com/conference-details/toronto-resource-investment...

The Silver Summit
Thursday-Friday, October 20-21, 2011
Davenport Hotel, Spokane, Washington

http://cambridgehouse.com/conference-details/the-silver-summit-2011/48

New Orleans Investment Conference
Wednesday-Saturday, October 26-29, 2011
Hilton New Orelans Riverside Hotel

http://www.neworleansconference.com/

Support GATA by purchasing gold and silver commemorative coins:

https://www.amsterdamgold.eu/gata/index.asp?BiD=12

Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt:

http://gata.org/tshirts

Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009:

http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal

Or a video disc of GATA's 2005 Gold Rush 21 conference in the Yukon:

http://www.goldrush21.com/

Help keep GATA going

GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:

http://www.gata.org

To contribute to GATA, please visit:

http://www.gata.org/node/16



ADVERTISEMENT

Sona Drills 85.4g Gold/Ton Over 4 Metres at Elizabeth Gold Deposit,
Extending the Mineralization of the Southwest Vein on the Property

Company Press Release, October 27, 2010

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Sona Resources Corp. reports on five drillling holes in the third round of assay results from the recently completed drill program at its 100 percent-owned Elizabeth Gold Deposit Property in the Lillooet Mining District of southern British Columbia. Highlights from the diamond drilling include:

-- Hole E10-66 intersected 17.4g gold/ton over 1.54 metres.

-- Hole E10-67 intersected 96.4g gold/ton over 2.5 metres, including one assay interval of 383g of gold/ton over 0.5 metres.

-- Hole E10-69 intersected 85.4g gold/ton over 4.03 metres, including one assay interval of 230g gold/ton over 1 metre.

Four drill holes, E10-66 to E10-69, targeted the southwestern end of the Southwest Vein, and three of the holes have expanded the mineralized zone in that direction. The Southwest Vein gold mineralization has now been intersected over a strike length of 325 metres, with the deepest hole drilled less than 200 metres from surface.

"The assay results from the Southwest Zone quartz vein continue to be extremely positive," says John P. Thompson, Sona's president and CEO. "We are expanding the Southwest Vein, and this high-grade gold mineralization remains wide open down dip and along strike to the southwest."

For the company's full press release, please visit:

http://sonaresources.com/_resources/news/SONA_NR19_2010.pdf