Venezuela and China agree to team up to develop large gold mine

This is disturbing.  When Hugo Chavez nationalized Venezuela's mining industry, they basically confiscated the assets from Crystallex, a Canadian mining company.  Since then, they have signed an agreement with CITIC, a Chinese wealth fund, to develop the gold and copper deposits of the Las Cristinas mine.  This essentially is a sterilized transfer of wealth from Crystallex to CITIC, leaving Crystallex no legal recourse.  Call it theft, which is equally appropriate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/venezuela-and-china-agree-to-team-up-to-develop-large-gold-mine/2012/09/21/3df036aa-0440-11e2-9132-f2750cd65f97_story.html

Workers Shot At Another South African Gold Mine As Miner Strike Spreads

I blogged yesterday about the probability of strikes among miners to proliferate going forward here.  As I outlined, the bullish case for the price of gold is many-fold.  But this article suggests another reason:  a hedge against nationalization of the mining sector, which will inevitably destroy the infrastructure and productive capacity.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/workers-shot-another-south-african-gold-mine-miner-strike-spreads