Venezuelan opportunities are vast, Trump official tells miners

Trump administration officials told mining executives and metals traders gathered in Venezuela that the US wants to help them unlock the South American country’s mineral wealth.

“You all understand how rich the resources are,” US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told the business leaders Wednesday. “Working together, we can create the right economic conditions for capital and technology and talent to flow in partnership.”

Burgum spoke to roughly two dozen executives from Peabody Energy Corp., Hartree Partners, Trafigura and other mining and commodities companies on the 17th floor of a downtown Caracas hotel. The gathering underscored the seriousness of the US bid to bring private companies into Venezuela to revive oil production and tap mineral resources following the capture of former President Nicolás Maduro.

Venezuela boasts vast mineral wealth, including coal, gold, diamonds and critical minerals such as bauxite, copper and coltan, a metallic ore that can be refined to extract tantalum and niobium.

Those reserves could support the Trump administration’s bid to reduce US dependence on China for minerals used in mobile phones, batteries, jet engines and other products. The administration has already taken steps — including buying stakes in mineral companies and exploring price floors to support production — to wean the US off supplies from Beijing after a trade spat last year halted the flow of some materials.

Burgum, who also leads President Donald Trump’s National Energy Dominance Council, emphasized that the conflict in the Middle East — which has vividly illustrated how quickly key energy supplies can be disrupted by political disputes — underscores the need to diversify.

“With the events in the last week, I think we realize, again, having having diversification of supply chains matters,” Burgum said. “However attractive Venezuela might have been a week ago, it’s probably looking even more attractive right now, and I’m sure all of you and the firms and the capital that you represent understand that as well.”

The US ambassador to Venezuela, Laura Dogu, described a Venezuelan interim government that’s open to development.

“You will see when you talk to the president, if you haven’t ever done that recently, that she is all in,” Dogu said. “Venezuela is open.”

Dogu conceded that doesn’t mean the path will always be “perfectly smooth,” but she offered assurances: “We are here to support anything you need.”

The executives in the room included Peabody chief executive officer Jim Grech, Lundin Mining Corp. CEO Jack Lundin, Orion CMC co-founder Frank Fannon, mining billionaire Robert Friedland’s son Govind Friedland, Paulson & Co. partner Marcelo Kim as well as executives from Caterpillar Inc.

(By Jennifer A. Dlouhy)