Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Wednesday made a full-throated pitch to develop Venezuela’s minerals and metals alongside more than two dozen mining and trading companies that could generate “billions and billions of dollars” in future investment.
“We have over two dozen American companies with us today. Some of the biggest, strongest, best mining and minerals companies in the world,” Burgum said during a press event in Caracas. “Many of these companies have worked in Venezuela earlier in their history. They represent billions of dollars of investment and thousands and thousands of new, high-paying jobs.”
Mining executives and metal traders are “eager” to get started, Burgum continued, and Venezuelan interim President Delcy Rodríguez, like President Donald Trump, wants to move to “cut the red tape” to allow that investment to flow.
Rodríguez at the event announced the Venezuelan government would ask to reform the country’s mining law and urged the National Assembly deputies to expedite the approval as soon as possible.
