Executive Committee tries to re-launch Rusoro, Venrus

In the middle of March, gold companies located in the southern part of Bolívar state were in a limbo following the expiration of a 90-day extension granted by the Executive Office for the negotiation and migration to the scheme of joint ventures, under the Decree 8,413.

Private and state managers washed their hands concerning Rusoro, a Russian company of private capital, and joint venture Venrus. Even though the operating situation continues deteriorating, the state hand has grabbed the operations, now under the aegis of Minerven.

"In the case of Rusoro, it is called Minerven Operaciones Mineras El Choco," remarked a manager of the gold industry. He informed about the establishment of an operating executive committee to ensure the activities during the transition.

The executive committee is under the coordination of Fernando Barrios, who worked with state-run CVG Ferrominera Orinoco.

Ending March, managers of the gold industry forwarded a communiqué to the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining warning against the possibility of lockout. Officials claimed that they needed the support of the Executive Office to speed up gold trade and get the foreign currency allocation from the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV). The latter is badly needed to pay inputs and critical spare parts; set the process for incoming equipment and machinery and speed up the clearance for the use of explosive devices.

Managers, in addition, requested the Executive Office financial support to cover the payroll of one month. With this, the managers undertook to keep the gold production.

At September 2011, Rusoro accumulated USD 12.9 million in net losses, as opposed to a net profit of USD 10.9 million the same term in 2010.

Presently, they estimate that the state-owned company operates at 20% of its installed capacity.

In the case of Venrus, Ramón Olivares took over as president and Humberto Cruz as vice-president. A worker of the company, Enoc Pérez, mentioned that the conditions are not the best. However, the fact that Executive Office has taken care of the corporate operations gives them better expectations.

"Even without enough transportation and safety implements, workers have somewhat produced by their own means," he commented.
Venrus worked with serious operating restrictions in 2011, ending with USD 5.9 million in losses.

Translated by Conchita Delgado