Venezuela deploys troops against illegal miners in its key gold-mining belt

Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López said about 12,000 troops have been deployed to informal mining areas in the Sifontes, El Callao and Roscio municipalities of Bolívar state. The operation has seized more than 200 pieces of illegal equipment and 30 wildcat mines, the government said. The region has been documented in recent years for environmental damage and armed gang influence.

Minerven, a subsidiary of state oil company PDVSA, runs the country's only official gold processing plant. General manager Ricardo Menéndez told state broadcaster VTV that the equivalent of about half the estimated value of official gold output over the past six months has leaked through illegal channels. The government plans to operate the seized mines under state control.

Geoff Ramsey, an analyst at the Wilson Center in Washington, said the move is strategic for a government that is trying to secure a foreign-exchange source under sanctions. Patrols along the Brazilian border have been increased. The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said it is closely monitoring compliance on gold exports. (Not investment advice.)