Arbitration Works Folks Crystallex says World Bank body orders Venezuela to pay it $1.4 bln
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April 5 (Reuters) - A World Bank tribunal has ordered Venezuela to pay damages of nearly $1.4 billion to Crystallex International Corp, a Canadian mining company, as compensation for expropriating the miner's Las Cristinas mining project, Crystallex said on Tuesday.
The $1.386 billion award was released on Monday by the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, the company said in a statement.
Venezuela's Oil and Mining Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Crystallex filed its arbitration request on Feb. 16, 2011 after former president Hugo Chavez's government took over the gold project in 2008 as part of a plan to put key industries into state hands.
The miner last November filed a complaint in a U.S. court, seeking to recover $2.8 billion it says it is owed from Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA and its U.S. subsidiary.