Swanny, don't forget that VZ still hasn't put out their new mining legislation, and that it will affect the small miners as well as the big companies. It would not be taken well if Chavez gave us our pernit, before dealing with all his own people who want to mine. Yes, a permit would give jobs, but the small miner is probably more intersted in working for themselves than for a large company.

I believe all things are slowly but surely leading towards a permit. If you have ever lived in a central/south american country, and dealt with there buraucrecy (?), you would know that it is a very slow moving beast, and most often doesn't make any sense to us.