Peter Koven, Financial Post Published: Wednesday, October 28, 2009

It's official: the government of Venezuela has seized control of Gold Reserve Inc.'s Brisas gold project. The company said yesterday that officials showed up at the Brisas site to declare ownership of the project. The move was not a surprise, as Hugo Chavez's government had made it clear that Gold Reserve would never get approval to build a mine at Brisas. Venezuela appears to favour rival Canadian company Rusoro Mining Ltd. as its joint venture partner in gold mining. Just last week, Gold Reserve filed for international arbitration over Brisas, saying its investments in Venezuela were "unlawfully and effectively taken" by the government. Gold Reserve's Brisas project sits next to the Las Cristinas gold project, where Canadian company Crystallex International Corp. has also been blocked from development by the government.

Read more: http://www.financialpost.com/news-sectors/mining/story.html?id=2153047#ixzz0VEnd1DQL
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