http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-19/chavez-decrees-nationalization-of-gold-industry-amid-surging-bullion-price.html

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered the nationalization of the gold industry and gave companies 90 days to form joint ventures with the state as he seeks to boost control over the nation’s metals producers.

The government will hold at least 55 percent of any joint ventures, according to a decree in today’s Official Gazette. The decree sets a royalty rate of 10 percent to 13 percent and says that all Venezuelan gold production will be sold to the state.

Chavez first announced the nationalization of the industry and plans to repatriate Venezuela’s foreign gold reserves on Aug. 17. Petroleos de Venezuela SA, the state oil company, is forming joint ventures with both state and publically traded companies to operate mines including Las Cristinas, which Chavez confiscated from Canada’s Crystallex International Corp.

“The government will have a monopoly of gold production and sales,” according to the decree. “All the gold that is produced from mining operations in national territory will be turned over to the Republic.”

Rusoro Mining Ltd. (RML), a Vancouver-based company that produces 100,000 ounces a year of gold, said on Aug. 30 that it would transfer its assets to a joint venture controlled by PDVSA, as the Caracas-based company is called.

Gold futures for December delivery declined $29.50, or 1.6 percent, to $1,785.20 an ounce at 11:46 a.m. on the Comex in New York.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nathan Crooks in Caracas at ncrooks@bloomberg.net; Corina Rodriguez Pons in Caracas at crpons@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net