Usar p⁄gs xvii-134 - ResearchGate

By nature, mining is a speculative activity, especially gold and diamonds. Mining often starts withexploration activities led by junior mining companies. Typically, these companies make high-riskinvestments in places with political uncertainty or unproven reserves in the hopes of striking a majorfind that can be sold to another junior or a major mining company. Our data indicate that:• More than half (59 percent) of the junior mining companies trade exclusively on theCanadian Venture Exchange (CDNX) or the U.S. over-the-counter Bulletin Board (OTCBB).These markets are made up of very small, speculative companies engaged in high-riskactivities. They are more likely to go bankrupt than other, more established companies.• Nearly one quarter of the foreign companies are either not engaged in mining at all or areinvolved additionally in other non-mining related activities. One company engages inventure capital deals; that is, it invests in highly speculative business enterprises. Fourcompanies are either exploring alternative investments or have acquired technology andInternet companies. For example, Bolívar Goldfields, Ltd owned exploration rights to over40,000 hectares of land in Venezuela until recently when the company sold its mining rightsto Crystallex in the year 2000 and became a data storage company named Storage @ccessTechnologies as of February 2001. 87Small-scale miners operate near rivers and roads, as well as in mining concessions allocated to corporations.The number of small-scale miners is difficult to estimate, but some studies indicate that they numberat least 30,000 to 40,000. 88 While some of these miners are operating under legal government contracts,an unknown number are illegal. Illegal miners do not have government permits to operate,and/or they are operating within national parks or other protected areas. The data we obtained onsmall-scale mining contracts were incomplete and did not include geographic coordinates for all ofthe contracts. According to our analysis:• Slightly more than one fifth of the area under concession has been given out to small-scaleminers, although this may be an overestimate due to potential overlap in contracts.• Small-scale mining occurs primarily along major rivers, especially the Guaniamo, UpperCaroní, Lower Paragua, and Cuyuní rivers in Bolívar State. Mining is illegal in AmazonasState, but it has been known to occur within the Yapacana National Park and in theManapiare Valley. 89 Do mining concessionaires abide by norms and regulations?QUESTION 8 •Most mining concessions and contracts lack the required environmental permits.Mining companies are required to obtain three types of environmental permits, which are obtainedat successive stages of mine development: a permit to occupy the concession, a permit to allowexploration, and a permit allowing extraction. An Environmental Impact Assessment is required atboth the exploration and extraction phases, although there is no requirement that it be made public.90 We analyzed data provided by the CVG, listing environmental permits by contract. The statusof environmental permits for concessions allocated by the MEM was not available. The datarevealed that:61