Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) — Rusoro Mining Ltd., a Russian-funded company buying gold deposits in Venezuela, expects tostart production of the precious metal at its Increible-6 minein the second quarter after securing government approval. The company will revise its production forecast for nextyear after Venezuela´s government approved technical andenvironmental studies for the mine, Chief Executive OfficerAndre Agapov said today in a phone interview.
Venezuela´s Official Gazette announced the mine´s approval on Dec. 23. “It’s fantastic news,” Agapov said of the decision. “Itchanges our projections for 2009,” he said, without providing further information on the Vancouver-based company´s forecasts.
Rusoro is the government’s preferred partner to also setup a joint venture to exploit Las Cristinas, which hasVenezuela’s biggest known gold deposit, Agapov said Nov. 14.The company already operates the Choco10 mine in Venezuela andhas a “lot of common ground´´ with the government, he said.
The company is attempting to take over Gold Reserve Inc.,which has rights to exploit the Brisas gold mine in the LatinAmerican nation. The company wants to create a joint venturewith Venezuela to develop the mine, Agapov said.
Rusoro rose 6 cents, or 9.7 percent, to 68 Canadian centstoday in Toronto. It has fallen 58 percent this year.
“We’re trying to be very proactive,” Agapov said of the offer for Gold Reserve. “It looked like we were the only interested party, and we took advantage of it. If 2009 is a similar story, we’ll be even more proactive.”