Mercuria lands in Venezuelan mining with US$5.2 billion pipeline: what a global trader sees that the major miners do not
The first public commitment by a global trader to Venezuelan mining did not come from a miner: Mercuria signed offtakes with Heeney Capital worth US$2.2 billion a year in gold and bulk commodities, with US$3 billion more under negotiation. It is a commitment to buy output that already exists, not to explore — and that distinction is the point.
The first public commitment by a global commodity trader to Venezuelan mining after Maduro's capture did not come from a large mining company. It came from Mercuria Energy Group — one of the five largest global traders in the sector — in partnership with Heeney Capital, a private capital vehicle specializing in markets with high geopolitical risk. The US$2.2 billion a year signed in gold and bulk commodities, plus the US$3 billion under negotiation for aluminum, nickel and ferrous metals, is not a commitment to extract: it is an offtake, a standing commitment to buy output that already exists. The question the deal answers is who validates Venezuelan mining risk while the major miners still will not.
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