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Norms Impact

US issues a license that authorizes sales of Venezuelan gold

A U.S. license now governs who can profit from Venezuelan gold, tightening executive control over sanctions carve-outs with foreign-policy power exercised through transactional access.

Executive

Mar 6, 2026

Sources

https://apnews.com/article/treasury-sanctions-venezuela-gold-reserves-c9c797beff5663ee79ffc528ad37e5f1

Summary

The U.S. issued a license authorizing dealings with Minerven, Venezuela’s state-owned gold mining company. The move signals the Trump administration’s intent to exert more control over Venezuela’s natural resources through U.S.-granted permissions for commercial activity. The practical effect is to reopen pathways for U.S.-linked mining and minerals business while excluding actors tied to Russia, Iran, North Korea and Cuba from contracting with Minerven.

Reality Check

Executive licensing power can become a quiet substitute for transparent, rule-bound policy when access to markets is granted or withheld through discretionary permissions. Normalizing transactional control over sanctions exceptions shifts major foreign-economic decisions into a narrow administrative channel with limited public accountability. Over time, this concentrates leverage in the executive branch and conditions the public to accept resource access and geopolitical influence as matters of permission rather than predictable, legislated rules.

Detail

The U.S. issued a license on Friday authorizing dealings with Minerven, Venezuela’s state-owned gold mining company. The action followed a trip to Venezuela by U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who met this week with acting President Delcy Rodríguez and with representatives of more than two dozen U.S. mining and minerals companies, many of which previously operated in Venezuela.

Burgum said Venezuela’s government provided security assurances to mining companies interested in investing in the country, where mineral-rich areas have long been controlled by guerrilla members, gangs, and other illegal groups. The license specifies that people and companies from Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Cuba are not authorized to enter into contracts with Minerven.