2008-11-05 23:41:27 - Leading government officials are denying a Reuters report, Wednesday, which variously misinterprets a regional radio interview with Basic Industries & Mining (MIBAM) Minister, Rodolfo Sanz, in which he is purported to have inferred that Crystallex International was to be "disinherited" from a mine-operating contract at the giant Las Cristinas goldfield in southeastern Venezuela

VHeadline Venezuela News reports:

Reuters had headlined: Venezuela says to take over Crystallex gold project www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/... in a story immediately cloned by Bloomberg and even the London Guardian newspaper, in which it was alleged that the Venezuelan government had said that it would take over the Las Cristinas gold project operated by Canadian miner Crystallex in "a new step by President Hugo Chavez to put key industries into state hands."

Quoting a news release (that the Ministry itself denies all knowledge of), Reuters says Venezuela's mining ministry aims to start a mine at one of Latin America's largest deposits next year and cites "a local radio interview" quoting Mibam Minister Rodolfo Sanz as saying "this mine will be recovered and will be operated under state administration."

Las Cristinas is already under "state administration" via the (Venezuelan) state-owned heavy industry conglomerate, the Venezuelan Guayana Corporation (CVG) of which Minister Sanz is both corporate president & CEO. However, Reuters plows on stating that "(President) Chavez last year launched a nationalization drive, increasing state control over the OPEC nation's oil industry. The US critic has since taken over key sectors of the economy including electricity, telecoms, cement and steel companies."

Admitting that Las Cristinas is owned by the government but operated under contract by Crystallex, Reuters, Bloomberg, The Guardian etc., also say that Crystallex has "waited for years in vain for permission to begin mining the deposit, located in a huge forest reserve in southeastern Venezuela" adding that the company said it had not been informed of any change to its status in Venezuela.

"We are pending on issuance of the (environmental) permit ... those discussions have been going constructively," according to Crystallex vice president Richard Marshall, also quoted by Reuters: "There's been no indication of any change whatsoever."

Meanwhile, VHeadline Venezuela News can reveal that while Reuters et.al. are pumping their version of reality, Crystallex' president & CEO Bob Fung and the company's Caracas personnel have not been advised of any changes and that Crystallex de Venezuela executives have been engaged in various meetings with government officials this week preparatory to an expected announcement that the project will go forward into production in 2009.

Stateside, Crystallex VP Marshall believes that the Reuters story is the latest in a series of spurious reports of vague and/or misinterpreted comments that tends to spread uncertainty and confusion among the company's shareholders and thereby create trading opportunities.

Marshall has just told VHeadline Venezuela News, this afternoon local time, that "through the summer we have meetings and a dialogue with the Ministry of Environment (Mibam) ... a number of Mibam officials visited the project in August and we received formal notice regarding the project
which we announced in an August 22 news release. Our position and expectations have not changed since that update!"