CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has announced he will nationalize the country's gold mines and gold extraction industries.
Chavez said Wednesday that Venezuela will deposit some of that gold into its international reserves.
The Russian company Rusoro Mining Ltd. controls one of Venezuela’s most important gold mines in the country’s southeast. In February, the government canceled the gold mining concession of a Canadian company.
Chavez made the announcement Wednesday during a telephone call broadcast during a military ceremony. He said he will soon issue a decree carrying out the nationalization.
It’s unclear how the decree is different from a 1965 law that nationalized gold mining in the country. In 1977, the government granted itself exclusive rights for extracting gold.
