try again Agapov ready to sell 38,000 ounces of gold at Bs.F 4.30/$ double-up rate!
VHeadline editor & publisher Roy S. Carson writes: Speaking exclusively to VHeadline.com at Caracas international airport at Maiquetia as he was about to board a return flight to London, Agapov Group CEO Andre Agapov said he was "jubilant" over last night's news (Friday) that President Hugo Chavez Frias had fixed new foreign exchange rates at Bs.F 2.60 and Bs.F 4.30 to the US$ ... especially the latter which allows him to export some 38,000 troy ounces of gold from company mining operations in Venezuela at double the previous Bs.F 2.15 exchange rate quoted by the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV).
Agapov says that the re-adjustment of Venezuela's exchange rate makes Rusoro Mining's and the Agapov Group's multi-$ million investments in Venezuela more attractive and paves the way for more of the same, especially the group's interests in the VenRus C.A. consortium with the Venezuelan government to exploit even more gold reserves in the south-east of Venezuela where Agapov operations are presently focused chiefly on El Callao.
The Russian investor has been in a "state of limbo" for some time now following a Central Bank edict stipulating the percentage of gold that must be sold to the central treasury, even then at the old rate of Bs.2.15 to the US$, which implied massive financial losses in what would otherwsie have been an upbeat situation given Rusoro's increased gold production at the Las Camorra and other mines in the immediate vicinity.
But yesterday's announcement of a "petro dollar" exchange rate specifically for oil and metal sales is seen as an "open sesame" to a brighter future for Russian mining investments in Venezuela, including Agapov's caolin (china clay) mining and ceramic manufacturing interests in joint venture with the state-owned Venezuelan Guayana Corporation (CVG).
There is, however, not much news on the horizon for luckless Toronto-based Canadian miner Crystallex International Corporation (KRY) and/or Spokane (Washington, USA)-based Gold Reserve Inc., who have been stymied in their efforts to mine at Las Cristinas and Las Brisas del Cuyuni -- likewise in the resource-rich south-east Guayana Shield area of Venezuela's southern Bolivar State.
Gold Reserve Inc., appears to believe that it will browbeat the Venezuelan government into $-billion submission in international arbitration courts while Crystallex International is still hanging onto shreds of a hoped-for buy-out by Chinese investors (?) while keeping the question of international arbitration meanwhile in reserve ... although it is understood that they do not have the financial capacity to survive any protracted legal battle that international arbitration necessarily implies.