Summary: The United States has issued a limited license allowing Venezuela's state mining company to export gold to the US, following a high-level visit and a push by the Trump administration to open Venezuela's resource sectors. The license contains specific restrictions, prohibiting transactions with countries like Cuba and Iran and requiring payments to flow through controlled US accounts. This move is part of broader US efforts to gain investment access to Venezuela's oil and mining industries, which the interim Venezuelan government has complied with through recent reform laws.
Main Topics Covered:
1. The US authorization of a limited license for Venezuelan gold exports.
2. The geopolitical context of US efforts to access Venezuela's natural resources and the Venezuelan government's compliant economic reforms.
3. The specific restrictions and financial controls attached to the US license.
4. Venezuela's severe economic crisis, including hyperinflation and the impact of sanctions.
US issues limited licence for Venezuelan gold following high-level visit
The licence follows a push from US President Donald Trump to open Venezuela’s resource sector to international investment.
The United States government has authorised a limited licence for the export of Venezuelan gold, following a high-level meeting to expand mining in the country.
On Friday, a notice appeared on the US Department of the Treasury’s website announcing the licence.
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It allows Venezuela’s state-run mining company Minerven and its subsidiaries to export, transport and sell Venezuelan gold to the US, within the parameters set out under US law.
Under the licence, however, no Venezuelan gold will be permitted to be exchanged with Cuba, North Korea, Iran or Russia.
The licence also requires payments to sanctioned individuals to flow through Treasury accounts known as Foreign Government Deposit Funds, the same system that has been used to store the proceeds from Venezuelan oil sales.
Minerven and other state-owned industries have faced US sanctions for years, as a penalty for the push to nationalise Venezuela’s resources under former President Hugo Chavez.
But the US has been pushing for inroads into Venezuela’s oil and mining sectors since January 3, when it launched an operation to abduct and imprison the country’s then-president, Nicolas Maduro.
The January 3 military operation has been condemned as a violation of international law, and critics argue that US President Donald Trump has since sought to exploit Venezuela’s natural resources for his country’s gain.
Trump and his allies maintain that Venezuela’s oil resources were stolen from the US, citing the expropriation of assets from US businesses in 2007.
But international law guarantees that countries have permanent sovereignty over their own natural resources, which cannot be exploited by foreign powers without consent.
So far, the government of interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez has complied with Trump’s requests to surrender oil to the US and open the country’s oil and mining sectors to foreign investment.
Just this week, Rodriguez agreed to send a mining reform law to the country’s National Assembly, following a two-day visit from Trump’s Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
And in late January, Rodriguez signed into law a separate reform that allowed for the expansion of private investment from abroad in Venezuela’s oil sector and lowered taxes on the industry.
Venezuela’s economy has struggled under tightening US sanctions and government mismanagement, forcing millions of citizens from the South American country to flee its borders over the last decade.
Proponents of the reforms say outside investment can help revive Venezuela’s ailing economy and fund upgrades to its outdated mining infrastructure.
On Friday, Venezuela’s central bank released its first inflation statistics since November 2024, showing that inflation skyrocketed to 475 percent in 2025, when the US placed an embargo on Venezuelan oil exports.
Gold production from Venezuela in 2025 amounted to nearly 9.5 tonnes, according to the government, and the country sits on some of the largest oil deposits in the world.
Meridiano
