VenRus to upgrade La Camorra to increase revenue, invest in communities

JV miner VenRus is looking to improve grinding levels at the La Camorra plant, located in the Sifontes municipality of Venezuela's Bolívar state, to increase revenues, company president Laura Paredes told BNamericas. "The plant is currently operating at 40% of its grinding capacity. We expect some of the resources the company is getting to go toward this upgrade," Paredes said. "We are processing, but aiming to reach maximum capacity," she added. The company is currently mining gold from the Isidora mine in the El Callao area from where it is transported for processing to La Camorra, about an hour away. VenRus will raise funds by selling half of its production to Venezuela's central bank ( BCV), as the law stipulates. COMMUNITY COMMITMENT "This will give us enough resources to better serve the local communities since, as a socialist JV, the company doesn't earn money but rather invests it in the people of El Callao," Paredes said. So VenRus has not reached the levels of production necessary to obtain and allocate funds for these two purposes, La Camorra and the communities. "But if we keep production levels at an average of 5,000oz/m, we will be able to meet all the needs of the communities such as water supply, roads, electrification and productive projects," she said. VenRus is a JV between the Venezuelan state and Russian-Canadian firm Rusoro Mining that has the Block B deposit, comprising the La Laguna, Santa Rita, Panamá and Isidora gold mines.