General Francisco Rangel Gomez, the President of Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana (CVG), the government of Venezuela’s holding group, has fired the latest shot in the battle for control of the Las Cristinas gold property in Bolivar state.
In a prepared statement, Gomez disputes Vannessa Ventures‘ (VVV-V) recent claim that the Supreme Court of Venezuela has ordered an international arbitrator to resolve the dispute.
“No legal measure has been approved until now by the Venezuelan Supreme Court regarding international arbitration in the Cristinas mines case,” Gomez said.
Gomez added that the comments made recently by Vanessa Ventures’ president, Manfred Peschke, “do not correspond to legal reality in Venezuela.”
On June 16, Vannessa announced that the Supreme Court of Venezuela has accepted its formal request for arbitration, and that the Court was expected to give its instructions with respect to the arbitration process to be followed.
The Vancouver-based junior also noted that it formally initiated the process of international arbitration against the State of Venezuela, under the Foreign Investment Protection Agreement (FIPA) signed by Venezuela and Canada.
Gomez also disputes that move saying, “the legal decisions made by the Venezuelan government do not constitute in any way a violation of the agreement regarding the protection of foreign investments.”
In other developments, El Universal, a national broadsheet, has quoted Gomez as saying that Barrick Gold (ABX-T) and Crystallex International (KRY-T) have confirmed their interest in developing Las Cristinas.
Reserves at Las Cristinas stand at 323 million tonnes grading 1.1 grams gold per tonne with 0.14% copper.
Vannessa comes by its claim to Las Critinas via a July 2001 deal via which it acquired a 95% stake in Minera Las Cristinas (Minca), the company that held the rights to the property, from Placer Dome (PDG-T). CVG has long refused to acknowledge the deal.
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