In Venezuela’s El Callao mining region, countless small, artisanal miners that once sold gold to the government have left the area in the last year because accessible local supplies are depleted and President Nicolás Maduro has been striking deals with bigger miners, seeking more production and more revenue for the treasury.
By Reuters – María Ramírez and Mayela Armas
Sep 12, 2022
Nationalizations in 2011 pushed out private miners and gold production stagnated. Now, Maduro wants to ramp up production by building “strategic alliances” with select private companies, a dozen sources told Reuters. These partnerships are forcing out informal miners in places like El Callao, in the country’s south, businessmen, government officials and miners said.
“They are looking to have more gold. It is what the state has (always) wanted,” said Alexis Chauran, director of an association of gold millers in La Ramona in eastern Venezuela, near the Brazilian border.
The government has granted 12 private companies permissions to build 30 processing plants, which use sophisticated equipment to extract gold-bearing sand from nearby mines, sources said. Most are already up and running.
The move came after the cash-strapped government was forced to sell off some of its existing central bank gold reserves while crude exports were squeezed by U.S. sanctions and Venezuela’s oil production dropped.
The bank’s gold bar reserves have fallen by 60 tonnes in four years. Reserves, equivalent to 73 tonnes or $4.33 billion, are at their lowest in five decades, according to data on the bank’s website.
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Read More: Reuters – Venezuela pushes out small gold miners as Maduro seeks more revenue
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