Environment

Despite the Venezuelan Environment Ministry’s proclamation of sweeping restrictions on mining in southeastern Venezuela’s Imataca Forest, Toronto-based Crystallex and Spokane, Washington-based Gold Reserve, Inc. have told investors that the ministry might still grant them permits for new gold mines.

Toronto-based Crystallex Corporation announced Wednesday that the Venezuelan Ministry of the Environment denied a key gold mining permit for the company’s operation of the Las Cristinas mine, one of the largest gold deposits in Latin America.

Venezuela's Deputy Foreign Minister Jorge Valero stated on Monday at a UN event on climate change that the responsibility for global warming falls exclusively on the "irrational capitalist model of consumption" of the first world countries.

On Tuesday, the Venezuelan National Assembly took the first steps towards passing reforms on the Venezuelan Mining Law, which could force companies with abandoned mines to form joint ventures with the Venezuelan state.

Chavez announced that the Venezuelan government would no longer issue mining concessions and would cancel existing ones. Instead, Venezuela will create a single state-owned mining company to conduct all mining in Venezuela, along the model of its state-owned oil company.

A protest against coal mining in the Sierra de Perija Mountains, in Venezuela's western state of Zulia, highlighted how mining there is hurting their health, the environment, and their livelyhood.