I agree with those posters that postulated that open pit mining is not an issue. If The venezuelans were serious about this, virtually all mining in the country would come to a grinding halt. Bauxite, iron ore and a few other major mining operations are all "open pit"

The law does not prohibit open pit mining and the law also designated this region of the Imataca as "mineable", without the caveat that it should be underground

What MinAmb is looking for is specifically an increase in the remediation operations while LC is being mined, not just at the end of the mining period.

Like GRZ, the company has not been able to formally present their case to the Vice Minister, due to multiple changes in her schedule, but expects this to happen very soon. Minister Ortega, reportedly is out of the loop on this Permit issue.

The financial impact of the changes MinAmb wants are negligible, particularly at the current POG.

Last week someone was dumping a fair amount of shares, depressing the PPS somewhat but it appears they finished selling and hopefully the current trend will continue.

All this per Richard Marshall earlier today.

Regards,

Rob