2008-09-19 20:40:12 - Officials say that the Parliamentary Energy & Mines Committee of the Venezuelan National Asembly (AN) will start a process of discussion and consultation with interested parties related to a new draft Mining Law proposal within the next 15 days before handing over to a plenary session for the final three hearings to be concluded before the end of this parliamentary session.

VHeadline Venezuela News reports:

Committee chairman Angel Rodriguez says the draft law governing mining activities in Venezuela was discussed at the beginning of 2007 with a view to it being included under special enabling legislation, authorizing President Hugo Chavez Frias to Decree immediate economic measures, but that the draft was subsequently frozen after it was submitted to the Venezuelan Mining

Chamber (Camiven) and other sector agencies in the initial stage of public consultation.

Earlier this week, Basic Industries & Mining (Mibam) Minister, Rodolfo Sanz, said he believed that the new law would be submitted to the AN before the end of the current session.

Deputy Rodriguez says that the Energy & Mines Committee wants to know what progress Minister Sanz (who has been in overall charge of the law project recommendations) has made so that the debate may begin and due consultations are taken into consideration to create a full consensus of opinion.

Camiven vice president, Luis Rojas, complains that little or nothing has been known of the new legislation since it was first mooted by Mibam four and a half years ago. "Clearly the government is still in charge of the proposal and we have made a number of comments but there was never a specific outcome or response from Mibam," Rojas says although he claims it will put the concept of concessions at a disadvantage and open the door to joint ventures via operation contracts.

Rojas says the economic-political idea has already been implemented in the shape of the recent agreement with the Russian Agapov Group's Rusoro Mining on a 50/50 joint venture to exploit gold at La Camorra and Isidro. He believes that gold mining in Venezuela will continue to decrease in production volume because of the current impasse on environmental permits, which is a serious roadblock to many projects and has affected the flow of much-needed investments.

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Venezuela's Center for Ecological Research (CIEV) director, Alejandro Lanz, says that illegal miners have ravaged the Canaima National Park and the upper reaches of the Rio Caura where it is no secret that there is no law enforcement and/or regulatory controls.

Lanz complains that while the TO-5 detachment of the Venezuelan Army as a checkpoint half way up the Rio Caura, garimpieros (illegal miners) are making a mockery of army patrols by taking a back route along the Rio Yuruani which, he claims, is overrun by more than 300 illegals acting with impunity to devastate the rain forest reserve while ineffective regional and national authorities do nothing at all.

"It is quite impossible for such a large number of garimpieros to go unnoticed," Lanz says. "At the La Paragua military checkpoint the TO-5 military are supposed to control the transit of these 'fly-by-nights' since there are hundreds who smuggle drums of oil, gasoline, food, engines, spare parts, dredging hoses etc ... all of them circumventing the military controls with obvious impunity."

The upper Rio Caura is reportedly NOT the only focus of environmental degradation and Lanz said that there are more than 100 powered dredges in the Canaima National Park which are undermining parts of the Rio Caroni river bank close to the old San Salvador de Paul mine workings.

Admittedly, there is what is described as "excellent control" by TO5 in El Manteco, where they've managed to reduce illegal mining almost completely. Aviation fuel is available at the El Pao de Fortuna airport which serves the Pantaleta mine but Lanz says that local authorities need to coordinate municipal efforts to make sure there are efficient and effective controls to safeguard the nation's natural resources.

"There is a need to develop an operational plan, whereby civil society, universities, NGOs, regional and local executive and the armed forces come together to outline concrete actions to ensure the effectiveness of controls that should not be flouted."

As regards the prevalence of illegal mining, Lanz says "isolated actions will NOT resolve the unregulated and illegal use of pristine and biologically sensitive nature."



Bolivar State Governor Francisco Rangel Gomez had a broad working agenda ahead of him this Friday morning with meetings in Tumeremo (southern Bolivar) to hand over a donation of ten 28-seater buses, courtesy of FundaBolivar, to several cooperatives and micro enterprises as well as two truckloads of fish and dairy products for poor families throughout the district.

Sifontes Mayor Marlene Vargas has hosted today's visit which also included meetings with community representatives and United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) activists.
According to municipal transport director Juan Carlos Silva, the inter-urban buses are to be put into service to form a transport network with the town center as hub and a permanent route between Tumeremo and San Isidro.

VHeadline Venezuela News
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