WASHINGTON: The Trump administration is seeking greater U.S. access to Venezuela’s minerals, including gold, as it expands its push to gain control and influence over the South American country’s vast natural resources beyond oil, according to three sources familiar with the discussions.
The effort could open the Venezuelan mining sector to U.S. investment and give U.S. companies access to not only oil, but supplies of minerals crucial for national security, the sources said on condition of anonymity.
It would also expand President Donald Trump’s push to more closely align Venezuela’s resources with Washington’s strategic and economic interests in the wake of the U.S. military’s ouster of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in a raid in January.
The Trump administration is considering a range of steps to increase U.S. involvement in Venezuela’s mining sector, including a possible executive order focused on critical minerals, the sources said.The order is still being drafted and the administration’s strategy to secure minerals in Venezuela could yet change, they added.
U.S. officials have also held meetings with companies to gauge interest in investing in or otherwise participating in Venezuela’s mining sector, the sources said.
“We are all watching the oil situation closely and recognize there could be a parallel track with critical minerals,” said one of the sources, an executive from a critical minerals firm who met with the administration about Venezuela.
Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, said the U.S. and Venezuela are “benefiting from renewed cooperation between our governments and new investments by Western companies in Venezuela’s key industries.”
A White House official told Reuters that there is no current need for an executive order, adding the administration believes current laws provide a solid framework for investment.
The effort fits into Trump’s broader strategy of reasserting U.S. influence across Latin America and pushing back against China’s expanding economic footprint in the region.
Maduro, a socialist who is being held in a federal jail in New York City on charges of drug trafficking, which he denies, had developed strong economic and diplomatic ties with China. Maduro’s vice president and ally, Delcy Rodriguez, has pivoted and increased cooperation with the U.S. since becoming Venezuela’s interim president after his ouster.
With its enormous oil reserves and potentially significant deposits of gold and other minerals, Venezuela offers the Trump administration an opportunity to tie resource access to its national security and economic agenda.
The administration has already taken steps to open Venezuela’s minerals sector to U.S. business.
In March, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control authorized certain transactions involving Venezuelan-origin gold, including activities tied to state-owned gold miner Minerven. Later that month, Treasury broadened the authorization to cover Venezuelan-origin minerals, including gold, while allowing some mining-related services and negotiations of potential investment contracts.
The moves have created a framework for U.S. companies to pursue opportunities in Venezuela’s mining sector as the administration seeks to revive investment while expanding U.S. sway over the country’s oil industry.
Trump already has moved aggressively to reshape Venezuela’s oil industry. Last week, he announced a deal under which the U.S. would take majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s proven oil reserves, although the precise legal structure of that arrangement has not been disclosed.
There are, however, fears within Venezuela that Trump is turning the country into a modern-day colony. –Agencies
