VHeadline Venezuela News reports: Marlene Vargas, the Mayor of the gold-mining settlement of Sifontes in southeastern Bolivar State says she expects a meeting this week with senior government officials will finally clear up a series of long-term difficulties experienced by the area's small-scale and artesanal miners.

"We're waiting for news about what is to happen with several large mining projects in the area and Basic Industries & Mines (Mibam) Minister Rodolfo Sanz has promised to tell us how far he has got with negotiations to get the projects started once and for all," she says. "We want to facilitate industrial-scale mining and to get additional areas assigned to small miners who have traditionally worked for gold to survive.

Miners union leader Paul Zambrano says he is in support of industrial-scale mining and their investments in the gold industry where small-scale mining can be organized to work in partnership or to get employment with the larger companies.

Meanwhile, writing in today's (Monday) edition of Correo del Caroni, reporter Natalie Garcia writes that the Basic Industries & Mines (Mibam) Ministry is letting the condition of factories and the environment slip. She says that factories are falling apart and the environment is being degraded ... and nobody is doing anything to stop it. Local efforts are being made to have Mibam Minister Rodolfo Sanz to understand the complexity of the situation and that Mibam must do something urgently to compel strict adherence to health & safety regulations and help prevent further environmental damage.

Garcia writes that it is no secret that Guayana's massive heavy industries are responsible for much of the prevailing air pollution, and there is very little consideration for the workers. This is a point of great concern for several organizations since $ millions have been invested to increase productivity with the result that there is little or no money left available for improving working conditions or dealing with environmental pollution.

Problems are seen in the fact that the Environment (MinAmb) Ministry has many limitations placed on it when it comes to requiring State-owned industries -- Alcasa, Carbonorca, Ferrominera, Bauxilum, Sidor and others -- to comply faithfully environmental regulations and, in Bolivar State, it is important that MinAmb should work strongly and efficiently to achieve a change that benefits all concerned. However, repeated calls for MinAmb intervention, appeals appear to have fallen on dead ears with no one prepared to give satisfactory answers. The trade unions have done very little since economic arrangements (wages) are their priority and nothing remains to improve working conditions to reduce sick statistics.

A recent inspection in Guayana by the National Assembly (AN) parliamentary environment committee made recommendations that ALL industries, including State-owned enterprises, should be required to meet standards for the benefit of both the workforce and their environment. Current environment legislation is very clear in this regard that the State has unavoidable responsibilities, and that residents should have access to full documentation to know that progress is being achieved to ensure a better environment. Article 66 of Title VI law requires "the national environmental authority establish and maintain a record of environmental information, which must contain the biophysical, economic, social and legal information related to the environment. The recorded data is subject to free consultation and, when they are of general interest, should be disseminated periodically by effective means. "

With regard to the Venezuelan Guayana Corporation (CVG), its responsibilities do not end with appropriate investment in environmental systems in its core businesses ... in paragraph 78 the law provides that "the State will implement plans, mechanisms and preventive controls to prevent environmental damage!"

Correo del Caroni's Natalie Garcia concludes that "there is no excuse ... it's time to recover the nature and the decision is in the hands of those in power."