Crystallex inches forward in legal dispute with Venezuela over Las Cristinas project

Canadian mining company Crystallex has won a court order that advances its efforts to collect on a US$1.4-billion award linked to a dispute with Venezuela over the 2008 expropriation of the Las Cristinas gold project. Crystallex in 2016 won an award of US$1.2 billion plus interest from a World Bank Tribunal. In March, it won a ruling by a U.S. District of Columbia court upholding that award, a crucial step in being able to seize Venezuelan assets in the United States. Crystallex can now seek to enforce the ruling in other U.S. jurisdictions, the same District of Columbia court said in a decision dated Friday. This could allow Crystallex to seek an attachment of assets such as Citgo, a refining and marketing subsidiary of Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA. More…