China to help Venezuela explore minerals for 5 yrs
The prospecting agreement is part of a growing alliance between the two countries, which has turned Venezuela into a major source of petroleum for China.
China will continue to help Venezuela to find and develop mineral resources despite being challenged by both the opposition and experts who argue that it will leave valuable natural resources dangerously exposed.
China's state-company Citic Group has already started working on the project to be completed within five years.
The prospecting agreement is part of a growing alliance between the two countries, which has turned Venezuela into a major source of petroleum for China, while the Asian giant is meeting the South American country’s growing need for credit to finance its constant outflow of public funds.
Venezuela has said nothing about how the knowledge gathered by China while awarded Citic Group a concession to operate the group of gold mines Las Cristinas, which has already seen several operators since Hugo Chavez took office in 1999, including the Canadian companies Placer Dome, Vanessa Ventures and Crystallex, and the Russian company Rusoro.
Las Cristinas, in the southeast region of Guayana, has some 20 million ounces in confirmed and potential reserves, valued at about $32 billion dollars.
Although globally Venezuela is known primarily for its great oil production, it also has massive mineral reserves. It has enough iron reserves, for example, to supply China, the world’s leading consumer of that metal.
Apart from gold, other reserves with export potential include bauxite (the main source of aluminium), phosphates, diamonds, copper, uranium and even coltan and thorium, two rising stars of technology industries.
Sumber : Google
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