Canadian junior miner Gold Reserve recently stated that it may file an arbitration suit against Venezuela under a bilateral investment treaty for blocking development of a gold mine in the OPEC nation.
Gold Reserve claimed a May 2008 government decision to revoke a permit for construction at the Brisas gold and copper project led it to alert Venezuela to the existence of a dispute under two investment protection treaties.
"If the dispute is not settled amicably, the company may file for international arbitration," Gold Reserve said, lamenting a "lack of meaningful dialogue" on the issue.
The Brisas sits next door to the Las Cristinas project. Combined they contain over 20 million ounces of gold, but the site has been entangled in legal disputes for decades and has not been developed.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he wants Las Cristinas to be developed as a joint venture between the government and Russian-owned Rusoro, which recently launched a failed hostile takeover bid on Gold reserve.
Chavez has nationalized energy, telecommunications, steel and cement companies since taking office a decade ago. Several companies including oil giant Exxon have taken Venezuela to court over government takeovers.
Liz Peek, financial columnist for Fox News, stated that despite Chavez' bombastic rhetoric about his socialist revolution, the reality is that Venezuela may be going broke. While President Barack Obama's overtures to Chavez at the recent Summit of the Americas have been greeted ecstatically by many in the media, "there has been little attention as to why Chavez may so desperately crave rapprochement."
The Vice-minister of Foreign Affairs to Africa, Reinaldo Bolivar, concluded on Wednesday his two-day official visit to Angola to strengthen cooperation between both countries.
The Angolan news agency, ANGOP, informed that the Venezuelan diplomatic said at his arrival that his visit had the objective of strengthening the cooperation ties in the fields of energy, diplomacy, politics, and economy.
"We came here to promote a cooperation agreement in the energy field, which has been negotiated since it was signed on September 2006, during the visit of the President Hugo Chavez to Angola," Bolivar said.
Reinaldo Bolivar met in Angola with representatives of diverse development areas, most from education and energy.
Despite Venezuela and Angola established diplomatic relations in 1986, it was on September 2006 when the Venezuelan Government announced the opening of an Embassy in Luanda, Angola's capital.
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