Venezuela Mining Min Denies Las Cristinas Offer To Rusoro

Last update: 11/6/2008 2:55:48 PM

CARACAS (Dow Jones)--Venezuelan Mining Minister Rodolfo Sanz denied Thursday that the government was planning to offer the Las Cristinas gold mine, one of the largest in Latin America, to Rusoro Mining Ltd. (RML.V) after taking back the mine from Crystallex (KRY).

Asked by Dow Jones Newswires if the government was planning to offer Las Cristinas to Rusoro, Sanz replied: "We haven't defined anything on that," adding that "it's something that we haven't thought about."

Sanz met Thursday with a high-level Russian delegation. Rusoro is owned by the Agapovs, a well-connected Russian family that has been buying mining projects in Venezuela.

The Mining Ministry announced on Wednesday that the government would take back Las Cristinas from Crystallex (KRY), a Canadian company that struggled since 2002 to obtain the necessary permits to operate the mine.

-By Darcy Crowe, Dow Jones Newswires; (58) 212 905 6304; darcy.crowe@dowjones.com

Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=yaK... You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 06, 2008 14:55 ET (19:55 GMT)