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Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez will declare gold a strategic resource for the country's development, the communications ministry reported.
The government will create a framework law to declare gold a strategic mineral in the country, Chávez said, adding that Venezuela's gold reserves, located in Bolívar state's Ciudad Guayana, are some of the largest in the world.
Chávez made the announcement in the midst of an operational standstill at state gold miner Minerven, which has plans to develop the Las Cristinas and Brisas gold deposits through partnerships with member countries of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) initiative.
ALBA's member countries include Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica, Honduras, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Ecuador, and Antigua and Barbuda.
In February, the government announced the cancellation of Toronto-based Crystallex International's (TSX, AMEX: KRY) mine operating contract with state heavy industry holding CVG for Las Cristinas.
Previously, the government revoked the concession for Brisas, which was in the hands of US-based Gold Reserve (TSX, AMEX: GRZ).
The projects are next to each other in Bolívar's kilometer 88 mining district.
Las Cristinas has 464Mt grading 1.13g/t containing 16.9Moz in proven and probable reserves.
Following the cancellation of its contract, Crystallex filed a request for arbitration with the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
The Brisas project has proven and probable reserves of 10.2Moz gold and 1.39Blb (630,039t) copper. In September 2010, Gold Reserve filed an arbitration claim against Venezuela before the ICSID over Brisas and the Choco 5 gold property.
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