VHeadline Venezuela News reports: Small-scale and artesanal gold miners in Las Claritas at Kilometer 88 in southeastern Bolivar State are hoping that the Environment Ministry (Minamb) will grant the final permits for Crystallex International to start its mining project at Las Cristinas since they believe that, along with the mine at neighboring Las Brisas del Cuyuni, it will provide a resolution to long-term unemployment with the activation of the mines.

A resolution of the current impasse with the Environment Ministry will being both national and regional solutions to major problems encountered by small-scale miners, and an announcement at Kilometer 88 will include a rethink on funding requested for small miners, who are also still waiting for MinAmb documents to allow them to work legally in their small-scale mining operations.

President Hugo Chavez Frias has designated the Sifontes municipality as a strategic mining area of national economic importance and has promised to provide them with the necessary equipment to fulfill environmental requirements in mining. Meanwhile, Sifontes Mayor Marlene Vargas is doing her utmost to being about an early resolution in defense of small-scale mining, but cites a critical lack of decision-making by national agencies adding that many small-scale miners are waiting for permits and bank loans to purchase machinery and equipment.

Meanwhile, Mayor Vargas says that traffic is flowing smoothly on the Kavayape trail built across the river after the old bridge collapsed more than a year ago. The temporary construction must serve until the replacement bridge is finally built to facilitate connections with Highway 10, linking Tumeremo and El Callao. The Kavayape trail has a series of warning notices following subsidence, which has been repaired but local law enforcement warns of robbers who look for drivers travelling by night. Transport companies complain that they are restricted to daylight operations since the frequency of criminal hijackings is so great at night and the police seem incapable of doing anything about it.

VHeadline Venezuela News
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