There were no maps or descriptions of rivers. Nor aerial photographs. Only a rope, a compass, several hammers and a notebook. "In four years we opened 2,000 kilometers of spades walk around the Botanamo River , near the border with Guyana. " Benaim Nessin reminds one of several seasons of sliding the index browser on a crumpled map and pencil marks Bolivar state. The pioneer of the field geology Higuerote native ran in the sixties and seventies the Venezuelan Amazon to describe its minerals and geology. Walking and navigating rivers became an expert in locating gold and diamonds in the savannas and jungles of Guyana. She learned that the true owner of the pipes is not the jaguar but the mosquito and a herd of wild pigs can easily devour a tiger.

Benaim and many other field geologists marked an era: from the 1960s and 1980s made ​​the key maps that have sustained the operation of national mineral resources (mainly iron, bauxite and gold), where the establishment of the country's topography and subsurface was a mining development policy of the Ministry of Energy and Mines and the Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana.

Official documents and experts say around 50 years this strategy by law vested in the Institute of Geology and Mining , under the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining declined and that the country has a deficit in its mapping that prevents exploiting coltan (mineral of vital use in electronics) or draw new roads.

Front institutional vacuum and loss of human capital, the government decided to give this activity to China , through an agreement that was agreed in February and signed in September last year. Although the Government did not specify the amount of the contract, deputies and specialists whose complexity infer that deserves to be studied by the Committee on Energy and Petroleum of the National Assembly, a process that has not happened.

The operational plan of the contract, which was seen by The National , reveals that Asians will be devoted to what Benaim and his generation did in the past: flying and walking the country to geophysical and geochemical surveys to identify minerals exploitable. For this work, 352 Chinese engineers remain in Venezuela for five years and monitored at 425 geologists, technicians and workers Venezuelans in 27 camps that are located in 12 states.

Also equipped expeditions, formed and assembled a laboratory staff.

Nation divided

The work plan of the Framework Agreement Geological Survey National Venezuela is the document presented to his Chinese counterpart, written in Castilian deficient in syntax and spelling, which reads "San Ellen Ueren", "Guanillano" (for Guaniamo) and "esfuerzará". There Citic says that divided the country into six parts (see graphic), which will have the following tasks: 1) airborne geophysical survey (helicopter), 2) geochemical studies, 3) research and evaluation of mineral resources, with emphasis in Guyana and the Andes, 4) exploration and calculation of reserves of iron, gold and bauxite (in Bolivar), phosphate (Tachira, Merida and Falcon) and copper (Tachira). Works include nationwide.

"The whole (sic) total area of ​​916,700 km2 is working."

Project leadership will be in charge of the Bureau of Geological Survey of China. The allies say they will be successful. First, they argue, Citic Construction company dedicated it to lift 24,230 homes across the country "has accumulated the rich experience of project management and construction of housing in the country, is well aware of the policy and legislation, the habit of Venezuela ". Two, above them the "geological miracle" of having completed the study of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (in the "roof of the world", at 4,000 meters above sea level). Finally, ensure that the best professionals sent. "All Chinese geological workers participated (sic) in the project are a group called 'the iron army' geological profession in China, which can specifically overcome great difficulties and fight."

Although the beginning of the activities, as scheduled, was set for October 2012, sources with the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining in Guyana indicated that Citic offices had not installed it yet. Its headquarters in Caracas and Beijing did not respond to requests for an interview with their representatives. Ingeomin president, Avilio Lavarca, who signed for the Venezuelan side, he asked for an interview but said he was not allowed to testify.

Unusual request

"It is rare that a nation will have another that is responsible for the exploration of its territory," said Jean Pasquali, a geological engineer at the Central University of Venezuela, an expert on deposits and geochemical studies. "Geological mapping is a very important area, from the point of view of the state. It is an act of sovereignty because it is our territory. A government that wants to progress develops a broad general mapping".

Commenting on the announcement of the agreement, the expert said Article 117 of the Mining Act 1999, which sets out the powers of Ingeomin: "Conducting research in the areas of geology, mineral resources, geophysics, geochemistry and geotechnics, plan, implement , direct and coordinate overall geoscience programs, and evaluating mineral and energy resources unconventional ".

Geological services in the world have been created to investigate and protect mining information from each country, and in order to shore up the industrial development of each nation. The first was that of England (1835), followed by the U.S. (1841) and Canada (1879). The de Venezuela was created in 1936 under the name Technical Service of Geology and Mining, assigned to the then Ministry of Works.

The Chinese contract put in the hands of another nation's country strategic data. So says Reinaldo Rincon, former president of Tecmin. "It's dangerous.

Furthermore, how is it that you are paid the Chinese to have information when they have our interests in exploiting these resources? "He asked.

In this respect there is little that the plan provides for the item "intellectual property rights". "The rights form (sic) during the process of implementation of the project belongs to the owner.'s Citic Construction company has the right," he says.

The Chamber of Industry and Mining of Guyana has said the mapping project is "selling mining sovereignty of the nation."

Like other geologists consulted Corner Working argued that the Chinese and was made by Venezuelan and Benaim since the early fifties. Then, the exploration of Bolivar was deepened in the mid-eighties by the state-owned mining that is attached to the CVG, holding that since the early sixties produces iron, bauxite and gold in the area. "They got the maps from all mining resources of Guyana, which included prospecting, geology, flora and fauna of the region, at 1:250,000 scale maps. The result was the Natural Resource Inventory of the Guayana region.

There was no satellite but with expeditions. It is the base material used by most companies. It is a large and beautiful work that has the Venezuelan State, at the time was a phenomenal project in Latin America. "

It is estimated that Asians do not require large investments for these studies. "I just need simple technical revisions and updates of data from geological reports and bulletins of the ministry, the GTS, the Development Corporation and PDVSA Andes," said Simon Rodriguez, former head of the Geology Department of Energy and Mines in the nineties. Like Guyana, he said, the Andes have been investigated, the oil areas also, by the foreign oil companies before nationalization in 1975 and then by PDVSA.

The amazement that generated the contract announcement prompted France Galea, petroleum geologist, a document circulating among his peers in October. "In the last seven years we have found the scorn and outrage committed professional from the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining, when our data were delivered to Iranian institutions and companies, Russian, Cuban and now this ominous agreement with the Chinese company Citic Group" .

No institution has echoed this position publicly.

An institution deficit

In the center of the discussion that experts give is indoors and the fragile financial professional Ingeomin, which leads to those who say that the state lagged in their own exploration from the nineties. The institute has admitted in its own documents.

In its 2010 Report and Accounts for the year noted that was assigned 32% of the resources required for its operation. He said his statement "has proven deficient" since 2007, which has been unable to meet its objectives and goals. "This has meant that to date not count on a national inventory of mineral resources and a georeferenced basis of the country's mining potential." In memory of 2011 could not be allowed to drill planned and that 100% of the budget was in payments to staff.

"Geological and mineral inventory there are many things that have been left undone," confirmed Pasquali. He noted that the maps do not expire, but have a limited level of information technology with which they are made. Moreover, science advances and discover new mineral properties considered worthless in the past. Coltan is the case, that has never been mapped. The expert notes that science gathers geological mapping disciplines as geophysics, geochemistry, remote sensing (satellites, air travel), the topography and hydrology must be an ongoing activity in all countries. "It just goes to look for minerals but risk to geology, civil construction and to found cities".

With the advancement of technology, countries have been progressing in the complexity of their maps. If the mid-twentieth century a nation could build a map of its territory at a scale of 1:500,000, today should reach 1:10.000, experts say. In that sense, in a document Ingeomin supports their national geological mapping is incomplete. "Countries like Colombia and Chile and have better mapping," said a source in Ingeomin.

"We should have maps of 1:50,000 or 1:25,000 country contour. Without them, no country will progress to a road that will cost you twice to do it. Now being revived national mapping service. But how is it possible that have abandoned? "asks Benaim, Ingeomin advisor. The question hangs in the air as his finger slides on a geological map, scale 1: 100,000 of Anzoategui, a project that was published by the shortcomings of the institute.

Partners of pick and shovel

Venezuela signed with Iran, Cuba and Russia (2004 to 2007) several cooperation agreements were executed between 2005 and 2009. With the Persian country agreed two agreements, one to lift the Database Geoscience in Venezuela and another entitled Studies in Geology, Geochemistry, Geophysics states Merida, Tachira, Trujillo and Barinas. Agreements with Cuba included the exploration and exploitation of gold and diamond in Bolivar Lara limestones; nickel Cojedes and salt in Falcon. In addition, there was a partial work helicopter flights in the area south and west of Bolivar (Ikabarú and Guaniamo) to locate gold, diamond, thorium, uranium and potassium. Cubans also participated in creating Ingeomin laboratories and in the recovery of exploited areas and technical training of miners in Bolivar.

With Russia was delivered to the company five concessions to mine gold Rusoro in partnership with the State in Bolivar.

Sources and related Ingeomin the institution noted that some of the agreements with the Iranians and Cubans were unsuccessful for various reasons. The Persians developed a database for which collected and classified information Ingeomin library and prepared a report with statistics on scientific publications.

Thus the mechanism stipulated in the contract would query for "all types of users." However, insiders said that although they made a brief presentation of the project, know the end result. Others point out that access to the database is restricted to a small group of people. Moreover, at the beginning the government did not specify the type of exploration that would the Persians, raising suspicion about the type of material that would be dedicated. Only a few years later in 2008 was officially reported that Iran had helped locate coltan and had interest in the phosphate mines of the Andes, which have small concentrations of uranium.

The marketing of this material is prohibited under Iran sanctions UN Organization. In Ingeomin indicate that the maps are raised in Merida wrong nomenclature.

Nelly Pimentel, a geologist with extensive experience in the former Ministry of Energy and Mines, agreed. "The mapping of the Iranians was not because there were good contributions.

Moreover, it was not necessary, the Andes are much studied.

They were looking phosphates uranizados and do not know what the results were. "Benaim agreed with these statements because they corresponded, at the request of the authorities of Ingeomin, correct reports were allies." Iranians had a project to go to Bolivar and were frightened by the jungle.

Then they went to the Andes and up maps that changed the names of the geological structures. "

He added that Cubans who explored gold at Callao geology did not do a project and Guaniamo (Bolivar) tried to find that there are heavy metals. "They made a big punch when it was not necessary," he explained. Witnessed a geologist's assessment of himself Ingeomin one project. In presenting the findings, Cubans admitted they had found the ore they sought, however, offered another project to continue exploring. The possibility was stopped short by Venezuelan officials, who argued that it had a significant amount disbursed by studies such scant results. The mining company Rusoro Russian capital decided to leave the country after the gold nationalization decree in August 2011, but not before suing the government before the ICSID. The question about the contribution of these alliances mining puts into question the statement by Rodolfo Sanz, Minister of Basic Industries and Mining at the time of implementation of the agreements. Referring to the help of these countries, in December 2008 said: "We have the complete map of the location of our reserves from gold to uranium."

In search of the black seeds

Delivering a detonator was black seeds of China's interest by Venezuelan mines. In December 2009, President Hugo Chavez gave officials there to assess a sample of coltan, a key mineral in the global electronics industry and high demand from Asian manufacturers.

Beijing expressed its interest in the exploitation of the mines and in May 2010 sent a delegation of more than 20 people who remained in the country two weeks. In Bolivar made a tour of the areas of exploitation of gold, diamonds and iron, and in areas where there is supposed coltan reserves. Were planners, economists and engineers, according to President Hugo Chavez. "Gold mines that were in the hands of the bourgeoisie have recovered and now we will work them with China. Kimberlitic diamonds also, gems and coltan, which is a strategic mineral" said that same month. "This strategy will enable us to build a colossal giant that is China." Immediately Cuba, Iran and Russia were overshadowed as allies in the mining sector.

For two years the bulk of that strategy were kept secret until February 2012 the Government announced without specifying details two agreements with China. One to exploit gold and copper deposits in the Las Cristinas gold reserves largest in the country, for 10 billion dollars and another "for prospecting, exploration and geological certification of mineral reserves in Venezuela." Citic Group and the beneficiary would begin by assessing "coltan, bauxite, iron and phosphate" in the country, said the president of Ingeomin, Avilio Lavarca. At some point he mentioned other companies to do so, as Kerui, especially coltan.

"The Chinese are hard to negotiate," said a source close to the Ministry of Petroleum and Mines. Officials from that office and Ingeomin traveled to China to discuss the terms of the agreement, a process that took about three months and was signed in Miraflores on September 21.

Chavez and the staff of Citic represented by its president, Chang Zhenming revealed the extent of the agreement, behind which is the amount contracts must meet the Bidding Law or be approved by the National Assembly, none of which has happened.

Before signing the agreement "mapping mining" China already had experience in Venezuelan mines. In 2001 he was commissioned a public company Shandong Gold rehabilitation of an old gold mine in Bolivar and signed a technical exchange. Then, in 2004, was awarded to the same company an exploration plan in other mines in El Callao. In 2009 Shandong Gold decided to terminate the contract due to conflicts both with the Venezuelan workers who had been employed.http://www.elcomercio.com/mundo/Venezuela-China-oro-minerales_0_860313977.html