DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

CARACAS (Dow Jones) -- Venezuelan troops drove illegal gold miners from 31 camps based in the southeastern state of Bolivar as part of efforts to enforce the recent nationalization of the industry.

About 120 wildcat miners were removed, according to a short statement posted Tuesday on Twitter by military officials. Venezuela has long battled illegal gold miners, who throw together lawless boomtowns in the jungles near the border with Brazil and Guyana while stripping the precious metal out of the ground with environmentally harmful practices.

By some estimates, these renegade operations double the output of Venezuela's underdeveloped gold industry.

Venezuela, which has some of the largest gold deposits in Latin America, has been more effective in driving away private mining companies with a history of strangling regulation that pre-date the government of President Hugo Chavez.

Last year, however, the socialist leader moved to seize exclusive rights to the exploration and extraction of gold and required all of the produced metal be sold to the government. The decree also ordered companies to form joint mining ventures with the state holding a 55% stake.

Rusoro Mining Ltd. (RMLFF, RML.V) is the only privately owned gold producer left in Venezuela and the country faces arbitration claims filed by Canadian miner Crystallex International Corp. (CRYXF) and Spokane, Wash.-based Gold Reserve Inc. (GRZ.V, GRZ).

-By Ezequiel Minaya, Dow Jones Newswires; 58-414-120-5738; ezequiel.minaya@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-14-12 1359ET