Venezuela planned exploitation of coltan in the south of the Orinoco
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

March 16, 2010, 08:52 Caracas, Mar 16 (Prensa Latina) Venezuela today outlines
strategic integral development projects in an area of 176 thousand 300 square
kilometers for the exploitation of coltan, a strategic mineral recently
discovered in the South American country.

A report by the Ministry of Basic Industries and Mining, the forward Cedeño
includes the municipalities of Bolivar state, and Atures Autana Manapiare
Atabapo and Amazonas, dominated by grasslands, tropical forests and large
rivers.

Coltan reserves south of the Orinoco are estimated at 100 billion dollars,
although the prospecting of this superconducting power is not yet complete.

Venezuelan authorities have advance that coltan mining is marked by a
sustainable mining, to the rectification of environmental impairment that causes
activity.

The business plan developed by the Ministry of Basic Industries and Mining sees
the establishment of a national strategic minerals for the exploitation of
mineral that until recently was brought into the United States via Colombia.

To avoid this, the authorities established the Operation Blue Gold with over 15
thousand National Guard troops, the Army and Navy.

According to a report in August 2009, a multidisciplinary team noted the
existence of oxides of columbite and tantalite, coltan that form, considered by
their physicochemical properties essential material in new technologies.

Its name comes from the abbreviation of columbite and tantalite, which is
extracted tantalum and niobium, used in industries of electric, nuclear power
plants, missiles, fiber optics and others.

Most production is for the development of

capacitors and other parts of mobile phones.


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