VHeadline Venezuela News reports: To put it mildly, Venezuelan government officials are getting browned off by the flood of emails, telefaxes and English-speaking telephone calls they receive on a daily basis from North American gold-mining investors with reportedly arrogant and sometimes abusive demands for information that individual ministry officials are unable, unwilling or simply not at liberty to provide.A source at Venezuela's Environment (MinAmb) Ministry who requested (obviously) that s/he should not be identified, says that the barrage and the abuse has reached intolerable levels and that, if anything, it tends to have a "retro effect" on any official's willingness or otherwise to deal with the issues raised. A similar situation prevails at Venezuela's Basic Idustries & Mining (Mibam) Ministry where, nowadays, even legitimate press enquiries are hung-up on or simply ignored.
The pattern is a repeat of what has been experienced by a number of Canadian and United States print newspapers that beat a hasty retreat from any coverage of Venezuelan mining stories simply because once the newsprint hits the stands or the Internet, they can be sure of a deluge of demanding queries and throwaway insults when reporters fail to respond immediately to the most outlandish of quests for details.
The problem appears to be a heightened expectation among North American investors that the companies in which they invest should be at their beck and call for every jot and tittle of information that may (or more often may not) affect their investments and the situation is not helped any in the proliferation of financial gossip forums on the Internet which are invariable used by nefarious and anonymous posters attempting to spread fear or unrealistic expectations in a calculated though highly immoral (perhaps even criminal) effort to scare or attract unwitting investors into making false investment decisions on which they (the criminals) can callously profit, often greatly, in day-trading.
It is also part of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias' political-economic reasoning that it is precisely these exploiters who should be discouraged from profiting on the back of Venezuela's massive oil, gold and other natural reserves and why an urgent reform of the Mining Code is being processed through parliament to regulate an industry where the misdeeds of previous, corrupt government officials must be revised and rectified against present-day realities in a total rejection of foreign stock-exchange manipulations and speculation that does absolutely nothing to enhance Venezuela future economic stability.
Recent international speculation in oil futures, for example, has sent the price of oil soaring to almost $150 and speculators seem to be willing to the world hostage to higher prices while Venezuela and other oil producers are paid only a fraction of the per barrel prices quoted in New York or London. President Chavez has sought to fast-wire the speculators by promising Spain direct deliveries of crude at $100 a barrel and this has sent the New York/London speculators almost into a nervous breakdown as they envisage an early pruning of their ill-gotten greed.
While North American shares in gold-mining stocks have plummeted on the back of Venezuelan intransigence over environmental and other issues, there is little sympathy for the investors in the Venezuelan ministries involved with regulations and permitting ... especially since their email boxes get flooded, their telephones get rung off the hook and their telefaxes go into terminal overheating from non-Spanish-speaking gringos prone to premature ejaculations on gold that have less to do with concern for thousands of impoverished Venezuelan workers than their incessant lust for gold.
VHeadline Venezuela News
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Roy i realize that you are just reporting the news but after 2 and half years and still waiting for a decision on the permit is crazy. it is vz government that doesn't seem to care if their people piss and shit in the streets and wipe their asses with leaves while going go hungry and looking for work. instead we have lies, broken promisses, delays. they should stop pointing the finger at others trying to deflect their own short commings. remember when you point your finger there are three other fingers pointing right back at you. it appears erectile dysfuction has plagued decision makers as they have become impotent. i suggest they try some viagra. maybe then they will be able to think clearly and make a decision and get the dam permit approved once and for all.
ReplyDeleteIt is a shame that it has come to the point where investors are calling and emailing the various VZ branches but who is really to blame? Would it be the Venezuelan gov't for denying KRY and GRZ's permit and by what sounds like never even looked at the very same EIS documents that they approved? Could we blame KRY for stating in early June that at a meeting it would be "several days" they would be getting back with Minamb with a proposal and here it is Aug 1 tomorrow and still not a word from the company. If an investor had purchased 4,000 shares of KRY last year when the EIS was approved and the requested bond and taxes were paid. You would have spent $50,000 on an investment at that time after many long delays that the Venezualan gov't was finally coming around and welcoming foreign investment. Forward to now and you have $7,500 left of that investment and even a worse feeling for the VZ gov't and their antics. As I said it is a shame that VZ agencies are bombarded by eager investors wanting to know what is going on but then on the other hand you can't blame them for seeing VZ's seemly "manana" practices and gag orders. Crytallex I feel needs to pony up to their shareholders as well and let them know "exactly" what was asked of them to do and what they are trying to do about it. For all we/investors know this could go on another 3 years if you take the past into consideration.
ReplyDeleteI take great offense to you latest article and how you stereotype all foreign investors. I for one have never used offensive language or unreasonably badgered anyone to inquire on the status of my investment in Crystallex. Quite frankly, if the Venezuela and its beaurocratic ministries were truly acting in the best interested of both its people and those foreign investors that were foolish enough to place our hard earned monies into their country, then perhaps they wouldn't be treated this way. Further, if we were to be completely truthful about the situation its unfathomable how someone in good conscience can approve a mining company's EIS and take receipt of taxes and bonds and then fail to allow the project to move forward after 13+ months. Without addressing the immense financial harm done to lowly retail investors like me, its criminal to think how 4,000+ citizens of Venezuela continue to go without work and a fair wage because of this. Perhaps this premise should be the basis for your next article. Good day.
ReplyDeletepremature? You really amuse me. This a 10 year saga with hundreds of MILLIONS spent to fortify the venezualan people.Not one dime of profit to the companies that spent it or the shareholders who put up the money. If the people don't want mining by these companies say so. DON'T KEEP TAKING THE MONEY. Hey I have an idea just give back all the money these companies prematurely ejaculated on you & kick them out the way they started. I look forward to your weak response
ReplyDeleteInfo for investors
ReplyDeletehttp://vheadlinevenezuelanews.blogspot.com/2008/07/premature-ejaculations-that-have-less.html
Your writer fails to point out that, in the USA, the SEC requires that every piece of information a quoted company has which will affect present or prospective investors' interests has to be published. There is no such body as the SEC in Venezuela and companies there in general do not give out much information. There is a difference in expectations, I guess, on the part of US investors.
I have said it before , I think this is a ploy to get the people rialled up against Chavez . You will see it in the comming election. Chavez must think he is in like flint , only some one has got the flint wet where it becomes usless with no spark .If I were Chavez I would walk this permit through and make sure it was done . He wants forien investments and lets this go on and on and on . Watch your back Chavez some one is going to stab you and it is probably some one close to you. You need to stop this Merry go round , a very concerned investor and one who would like to see you make it in the comming election . It is plain to see you are working hard and long for your people and have come along way Remember Not all Americans are against you .
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