Toronto-based Crystallex International has a signed contract with the state-owned CVG to operate the Las Cristinas project

VHeadline Venezuela News reports: Small-scale mining association leader William Saud has told El Diario de Guayana reporter Isidro Casanova that the Las Cristinas gold mine will be exploited jointly by the Venezuelan state and the Russian Agapov group under an ALBA (The Latin American answer to NAFTA) agreement that takes small-scale mining groups also into consideration.

Saud adds that more than a thousand families located on the Las Cristinas project in Las Claritas are looking forward to the new partnership and that "although justice is late in coming, the important thing is to get the Las Cristinas deposit up and working!"

Although no official statement has been made yet by Venezuela's Basic Industries & Mining (Mibam) Ministry, national, regional and international media are taking a last week statement by Mibam Minister Rodolfo that Las Cristinas was to be "rescued by the government" implies that it will be handed over for includion within the 50/50 "socialist joint venture partnership" existing between Agapov's Rusoro Mining and the Venezuelan Guayana Corporation's gold mining subsidiary CVG-Minerven. Casanova reports that Russian capital interests are assuming many of the gold mines in southern Bolivar state, as well as the exploitation of a large kaolin deposit at Kilometer 88, in San Isidro parish of the Sifontes municipality.

Saud says "the mining townships of San Isidro parish are expressing their appreciation to the President of the Republic, Hugo Chavez, Mibam Minister Rodolfo Sanz and to Luis Herrera, the current president of CVG-Minerven for rescuing Las Cristinas and to place it in the hands of small-scale mining along with state enterprises and their strategic partners."

There are, however, legal problems in sight as Minister Sanz also acknowledged when he made last week's announcement of a supposed partnership with Russian capital interests to exploit Las Cristinas. Toronto-based Crystallex International has a signed contract with the state-owned CVG to operate the Las Cristinas project, and the CVG is the official owner of the reserve in the name of the Venezuelan people.

Meanwhile a geological survey of Las Cristinas is said to have reported a gold resource in the order of 15 million troy ounces. The initial project contract (with Crystallex) was for 20 years and it is not yet determined who is liable for the investment and maintenance work done over the past nine years.

Saud refuses to get involved in the legal issues surrounding Las Cristinas. He insists that he appreciates the fact that the Venezuelan State has "rescued" the deposit ... "The Las Cristinas project must become a joint venture, which also involves small-scale mining communities."

Already in 1999, indigenous communities were removed from Las Claritas, to be able to hand over the site to the Mineras Las Cristinas (MINCA) joint venture between Vancouver-based Placer Dome and the CVG ... at which stage a series of legal and social problem only grew worse. Saud says these problems are now virtually ended since the Las Cristinas project will pass into an ALBA cooperation with the creation of a new mining development project headed by CVG-Minerven president Luis Herrera as an initial step towards it becoming a socialist joint venture project that will benefit all communities.