Unwelcome attention for Venezuela's foreign miners

Funeral bells may have sounded for two of Latin America's top gold projects after mineral-rich Venezuela warned it will not issue permits in a forest reserve, part of a slow campaign grinding away at private miners. Left-wing President Hugo Chavez is on a nationalizing spree that has swallowed energy, steel and cement companies. For months he has toyed with the idea of taking a chunk of miners without ever fully revealing his intentions for the sector. But in April the environment ministry ruled that no new gold mines would be allowed in a reserve that houses the country's main projects, owned by Canada's Crystallex and Gold Reserve, the strongest steps yet taken against miners. Citing environmental concerns in the ecologically rich but degraded Imataca Forest Reserve, Minister Yuviri Ortega later said open-pit mining would be banned and all concessions were under review, prompting speculation the government is preparing to take over companies. It was the latest volley in a steady campaign to limit the activity of foreign investors, which has already made the Caribbean nation an unnerving place to do business and hammered foreign investment. Ortega's comments were a shock to the two companies, which have both invested hundreds of millions of dollars in their projects and had waited for months for final permits to start pulling gold from the ground. If the decision to ban new pits in Imataca sticks, it will put an end to the projects.