Venezuela, Canadian gold miner settle dispute in $5 billion deal

Venezuela will get $5 billion in a settlement deal with Canada's Gold Reserve (TSE:GRZ), ending a sever-year-long dispute over a gold asset in the country’s southeast.

The deal would see Venezuela and Gold Reserve, which locked horns in 2009 over the termination of the company's Las Brisas gold concession, embark on a joint venture, local newspaper El Mundo reported (in Spanish).

Venezuela and Gold Reserve will jointly exploit the Las Brisas and Las Cristinas mines.

The small Canadian miner began work on the Las Brisas gold and copper project in 1992, but defunct President Hugo Chavez revoked the permit in 2009, after the firm had invested more than $300 million on it. Gold Reserve took the case to international arbiters then.

Authorities in Caracas hailed the settlement deal, which includes a $2 billion loan to the country.

"It's the resolution of a conflict," President Nicolas Maduro was quoted as saying. "Now we are partners."

Venezuela will work with Gold Reserve to jointly operate the Las Brisas and Las Cristinas mines.

Several other international companies are still seeking compensation for projects expropriated and halted by the socialist administration in recent years.

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