"the Chinese, they have as was stated, gotten their assurances from him and the other ministers"

Sorry but the only word we ever got about "assurances" (that Chavez gave his OK to the Chinese to mine Las Cristinas) came from KRY.

There has never been any word of these "assurances" from any other source other than KRY.

To the contrary, Chavez has gone on public record stating the Russians would mine LC. And he made those statements even after, supposedly, giving the OK to the Chinese.

While it may be true that Chavez privately told the Chinese, "Go ahead. Make a JV with KRY and you'll get your permit for LC". We can't be sure. If that "assurance" is true the market sure doesn't seem to believe it.

Why?

Because KRY has said many things, public and private, at AGMs and in quarterly reports, that did not come true. And they were able to say those things because KRY's risk factor statement says- (to paraphrase) "political risk in Ven is very high and anything can happen".

So I hope no one "backed up the truck" in July or three years ago. The political risk in Ven is just too high to "back up the truck", "bet the farm" and any other investing cliche.

Cividale