The \r\nlargest mining deposit in Venezuela and the small island of Barbados are \r\nconnected. Though separated by more than a thousand kilometers (621.37 mi), both \r\ngeographical points are united in the business that emerged from the \r\ndelimitation of the \"Orinoco Mining Arc\" by the government of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro in \r\nFebruary 2016. If smuggling, and small-scale and informal mining governed the \r\nsouth of Venezuela for years, now the foundations of a rushed exploitation with \r\n\"joint ventures\" between the State and private companies with companies in the \r\nCaribbean island are being built.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
For \r\nsome reason, not entirely clear, this activity \u2014in an area of ??almost 112 \r\nthousand square kilometers (43243.44 square miles) to the north of the state of \r\nBol\u00edvar and south of the Orinoco River\u2014according to presidential decree 2.248 \r\nissued in Official Gazette 40.855 of February 24, 2016, with which the \r\nVenezuelan government aims to make up for the drop in oil prices and the \r\ncollapse of oil production, is now linked to companies registered in that small \r\ntax haven called Barbados. This is the case of Corporaci\u00f3n Faoz, an unknown \r\nVenezuelan company that in August 2016 signed an agreement with the national \r\nExecutive for the exploitation of Coltan, a strategic mineral known as \"blue \r\ngold,\" and wanted by industries like the telecommunications \r\nindustry.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\t\t