yeah, there were a few articles like that. i think they're trying to sell the "new deal" to the illegals to make way for large scale production. Tomi, kinda suprised me. it looks like the ven govt is giving illegals some pretty dried up areas to work...

over the years of conversing with some great folks here at agora (special thanks to hoov) i've learned enough about mining to be dangerous and i've come to the following conclusion.

- LC was never going to be mined on a high tonnage/low grade scale until the illegals had stripped enough of the easy gold to make small scale mining un-economical...the official corruption and greater profits for locals is what really kept us from getting a permit imo...

now that the high grade, easily accessable gold has been worked over, the greater profits (for hugo and his henchman) will be realized by a large scale high tonnage/low grade operation.

the new BCV assay office and gold "artisan" schools and jewelry districts are definately foreshadowing a huge ramp up of gold production (especially in the sifontes district). there's no reason to extablish these entities while you're kicking out all the current producers (the illegals) unless you plan on establishing a new production center.

LC (and probably LB) are going to be open for business soon imo...now let's hope kry is part of that. logically, it's the way to go, but logic has always burned me when applied to venezuela...