Yesterday's article started with Las Cristinas Venezuela, there is no place in Venezuela called Las Cristinas only a mining ore body, rookie mistake, from low level greased 'spinners' brough and paid for by lowlife rookie pirates that can seem to get over their contant failure, my take only seen this coming, more scam in the horizon imho

Venezuelan Gold Mine Still Lures Prospectors

Is Latin America’s top gold deposit myth or reality? After four centuries, the lure of the La Cristinas gold mine is still going strong. Read this tale of wondrous riches untold, but whatever you do, don’t leave your day job.

According to news sources, the Las Cristinas deposit and its sister property, Brisas, which are collectively known as Kilometro 88, is located south of the Orinoco River and near a town bearing the name of the mythical city known as El Dorado. Although it has not been mined for more than twenty years due to red tape legalities, the mine still lures prospectors seeking to extract the estimated 20 million ounces of gold that lie untouched within its interior.


The area has a colorful history. The gold mine is only a short drive from the mountain range that inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fantasy novel, The Lost World. In 1616, English writer and explorer, Sir Walter Raleigh, led an expedition up the Orinoco River in search of the untold wealth of El Dorado. He found only misfortune as he lost a son in battle and his own head upon his return to England for the crime of inciting war with Spain. But his gold speculations were not very far from wrong, as the region did become the world’s largest gold producer in the 19th century, albeit briefly.


La Cristinas may well be Latin America's top gold deposit, but its untapped potential is mired in the region’s economic and political turmoil. The socialist regime of President Hugo Chavez offers an unstable business climate for investors with an eye on Venezuela. But local miners as well as investors are optimistic after Chavez recently publicly announced that the mine would soon be open aided by the funds of Russian tycoon, Vladimir Agapov.


According to Crisitna Perez, who has panned gold in the area for a generation and lives in a tidy, tin-roofed shack with no running water in the village of Las Claritas:

“Some people were born here and 20 years on are still waiting for the mine to open. It has to start this year. We need sewage disposal, housing and security. I feel so unsafe and a gang stole my $12,000 metal detector.”

Agapov's Vancouver-based company, Rusoro, owns the rights to the mine and has had success turning around two troubled gold mines in the same region. In the words of Rusoro’s president, George Salamisoro:

“This quagmire, and the perception of risk that comes with it, continues to be a bit of a drag on our share valuation.”

Investors from Europe, North America and now Russia have all set their sights on the mine, but no company has extracted its ore since the government expelled Amalfi Grossi, an Italian adventurer who operated the mine with more than a thousand local miners in the 1980s. He was forced out of the town he had built and died a broken man. The malaria-ridden jungle soon claimed the rotting ghost town. According to local legend, Grossi’s curse remains on the land and no company ever has or will succeed in gleaning riches from the mine.


Well, Venezuela and Rusoro, what are you waiting for? This is a fight to the economic finish with gold prices hovering at $1,000 an ounce.

Go, go, go!