Interesting find. GRZ's filings have been just copy and pastes of previous filings so it's easy to miss this potentially new case.

Here is the full text for those who don't subscribe:

Canada’s Gold Reserve, which won a billion-dollar award against Venezuela a decade ago, has threatened the state with a new investment treaty claim worth more than US$7 billion after its mining rights were again revoked. 

In its latest annual report issued last week, Gold Reserve says it issued a notice of dispute on 4 December under Venezuela’s bilateral investment treaties with Canada and Barbados.

The dispute concerns a March 2022 resolution by Venezuela’s ministry of mines revoking the mining rights for a gold, copper and silver project known as Siembra Minera based on alleged non-compliance with regulations.

The rights were held by a joint venture vehicle that is 45% owned by Gold Reserve, with the majority stake held by state-owned entity Corporacion Venezolana de Mineria.

The ministry has refused to reconsider the decision and Gold Reserve’s appeal to Venezuela’s Supreme Court was terminated in October. 

Located in the eastern Venezuelan state of Bolivar, Siembra Minera is made up of a project formerly known as Brisas and the adjacent Cristinas project. 

Gold Reserve previously held a concession for Brisas before Venezuela terminated it in 2008. This led the company to file its first treaty claim, which was heard in ICSID additional facility proceedings seated in Paris.  

In a 2014 award, a tribunal including Piero Bernadini of Italy as chair, David AR Williams of New Zealand and Pierre-Marie Dupuy of France granted Gold Reserve US$746 million plus interest. 

Two years later, the parties entered into a settlement in which Venezuela agreed to pay US$792 million to satisfy the award in full and a further US$240 million to purchase mining data relating to Brisas. 

Concurrently with the settlement, the parties agreed to set up the joint venture to develop Siembra Minera. 

Gold Reserve has argued the revocation of rights for Siembra Minera is in breach of the joint venture agreement as well as the settlement. 

For the earlier claim, Gold Reserve was represented by White & Case while Foley Hoag acted for Venezuela. Since 2014, Norton Rose Fulbright has been acting for Gold Reserve alongside local counsel including Lisbon firm Morais Leitao. 

In its annual report, Gold Reserve says it has so far received the US$240 million from Venezuela for the Brisas mining data – but only US$14 million in relation to the award. With interest, it says the state still owes US$1.08 billion under the award. 

The miner also says that Venezuela has failed to make available US$350 million to an escrow agent to partially guarantee its payment obligations; as well as US$110 in Siembra Minera start-up costs. 

Gold Reserve is still trying to enforce the award. A district court in Washington, DC entered judgment on the award in 2015 and last year Gold Reserve obtained a conditional writ of attachment against an interest in Houston-based Citgo Petroleum owned by Venezuela’s national oil and gas company PDVSA. The Citgo interest is undergoing a court-supervised auction. 

On 5 April, Gold Reserve’s attachment along with those obtained by other creditors was served by the US Marshal's Office on PDVSA and the special master overseeing the sale. A sale hearing in the Delaware court is scheduled for July. 

Crystallex, which holds a US$1.4 billion ICSID award against Venezuela relating to Las Cristinas, is another creditor participating in the auction. 

Gold Reserve says it has also attached US$21.4 million in funds deposited at a Portuguese state-owned bank, which it says are held in trust by Bandes Bank, a Venezuelan state-owned development bank. 

The Canadian company says it initiated an ICC arbitration against Bandes Bank in December, which is required to obtain judgment to execute against the attached funds in Lisbon.