Venezuela may issue this year gold-backed bonds
02:21 PM Caracas .- Venezuela this year could issue gold-backed bonds, said Minister of Basic Industries and Mining, Rodolfo Sanz, an operation the oil-rich country has seen in the past but has never come to pass.

The main oil exporter in Latin America has vast untapped reserves of gold, as the sites of Las Cristinas and Brisas, whose operation is planned to make with Canadian companies but the project has not been developed, Reuters reported.

"We are working, preparing, studying with the Central Bank the possibility of issuing gold-backed bonds," Sanz told reporters before the installation of a Venezuela-Russia bilateral commission preparing the visit to Caracas on Friday the prime minister Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"If we do, it would be this year," the official added, without elaborating.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the OPEC member country has one of the largest gold reserves in the world.

President Hugo Chavez has reiterated in his 11 years in power that his socialist policies succeed in reducing the high economic dependence on Venezuelan oil, which remains the main resource of the country and one of its few sources of foreign exchange.

Sanz said the country aims to make mining in its second source of income.

About The Cristinas mine, the minister assured that continue looking for partners, but Chavez said that Venezuela would explode projects southeastern state of Bolivar with Russian allies, including Canada Rusoro Russian firm.

"(Farms) with those who meet the new conditions that the State is placing" said Sanz.

http://economia.eluniversal.com/2010/03/31/eco_ava_venezuela-podria-emi_31A3674171.shtml