With no hard currency and $5 billion in debt payments due before the end of the year, the country's bullion held in Caracas is its only source of cash.
According to research house Wood Mackenzie, the need for investment is becoming desperate in zinc and lead and will be a major issue in the copper sector in the next few years.
A month after Anglo completed the sale of Mantos Blancos and Mantoverde copper mines in northern Chile, analysts are calling into question the firm’s chance to unload two other assets.
For generations, Brazil's indigenous groups lived in isolation, but the discovery of large diamond deposits in their lands has brought them more misfortune than wealth.