The Venezuelan government may be planning to issue a decree suspending all mining concessions in the country, according to the president of Venezuela's mining chamber Camiven, Gilberto Sánchez. "Just as Ecuador did recently. That possibility exists," Sánchez told BNamericas.

On April 18, Ecuador's constituent assembly announced an immediate 180-day suspension of activities on virtually all of the country's mining concessions while a new mining law is approved. Sánchez mentioned the possibility since time is almost up for the Venezuelan government to approve a mining reform through President Hugo Chávez's enabling law, and as yet there have been no announcements on the issue. The enabling law allows Chávez to rule by decree on a broad range of issues for 18 months as of February 2007, bypassing the legislative branch. "However after the enabling law expires, the president can still draw up a bill and present it to the national assembly for discussion, but that would complicate the process much more," Sánchez said. A draft mining reform law drawn up last year by the ministry of basic industries and mining proposed that a private company can only participate in mining by forming a JV with the state, where the state holds the majority. Venezuela is host to several operations including the Choco 10 gold mine, owned by Canadian Rusoro Mining (TSX-V: RML), Anglo American's (LSE: AAL) Loma de Níquel mine and gold mines run by state-owned Minerven. The country also is home to the 20.8Moz Las Cristinas gold deposit owned by Toronto-based Crystallex International (TSX: KRY) and the Las Brisas copper-gold project held by US miner Gold Reserve (TSX, AMEX: GRZ) which contains 10.4Moz gold and 1.3Blb (589,670t)