Venezuela - Opportunity? Or Not?

In recent days, with Trump capturing Maduro from Venezuela, there has been a lot of chatter about Venezuelan assets, and the huge deposits of gold, oil and other minerals in the country.

Boots On The Ground: John Doody made a trip to Venezuela in 2004, visiting Las Cristinas mining operation, and others operated at the time by Crystallex and Hecla. His Field Report is here [Download Here]. In 2008, Hugo Chavez’ government nationalized the gold sector. Crystallex won a $1.4 billion award and then pushed enforcement in US Courts. Gold Reserve and other miners also sued. More on that litigation here.

Currently, there is no major mining operation in Venezuela. Thousands of “Artisans”, small individual miners, continue to scrabble and mine the deposits, but the vast majority of the gold is still in the ground. The political risks in the country remain, making it unlikely that companies will invest huge sums to develop mines in the near term.

Opportunity?

As far as opportunities for investors, John sees nothing to excite him in Venezuela. Quite the opposite. One of the tenets of Fave5Golds is avoiding stocks with political risk. The Las Cristinas deposit has already been seized once by the Venezuelan government. John is focused on identifying miners with deposits in countries with strong title laws, with a "jolt factor" that can double or triple the stock in a 1-2 year timeframe. John’s Fave5Golds gained 154.9% in 2025 investing in companies operating in safe jurisdictions.

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