Venezuela’s state-owned mining company Minerven has reached an agreement to deliver between 650 kg and 1,000 kg of gold to commodities trading firm Trafigura, which will arrange for the metal to be processed at refineries in the United States. The agreement was finalised on March 2, but has not yet been officially announced.
According to the terms of the contract, the gold supplied by Minerven must reach a final purity level of 98 per cent in the bars delivered under the deal. The arrangement was reportedly helped along by Doug Burgum, the U.S. interior secretary, who is currently visiting Venezuela. Trafigura has previously served as an intermediary in selling Venezuelan oil to the United States through agreements worth more than $1 billion.
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Sources within the U.S. government told Axios that the transaction is expected to benefit Venezuela, where illegal mining networks and black-market smuggling have long been linked to corruption in the gold sector.
From Washington’s perspective, officials said the arrangement also redirects Venezuelan gold exports. In the past, much of the metal was shipped to countries such as Türkiye or Iran, but under the new deal it will instead be transported to the United States for refining and processing.
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