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Citigroup says Venezuela deal covered $1.6 billion in gold

Section: Daily Dispatches

By Jennifer Surane and Patricia Laya
Bloomberg News
Friday, February 22, 2019

Citigroup Inc. said it entered into a financing deal with Venezuela's central bank in 2015 essentially using $1.6 billion of gold held at the Bank of England as collateral.

A subsidiary bought the precious metal up front, taking full legal ownership under a contract that requires Venezuela's central bank to periodically buy back portions at predetermined dates, Citigroup said in a filing Friday. The agreement became the subject of a Bloomberg report this week on the firm's efforts to resolve the deal now that stiffer sanctions are in place.

... Dispatch continues below ...



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First Vanadium Acquires Strategic Land Position
Extending the Carlin Vanadium Deposit in Nevada

Company Announcement
Thursday, January 31, 2019

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada -- First Vanadium Corp. (TSXV: FVAN, OTCQX: FVANF, FSE: 1PY), formerly Cornerstone Metals Inc., has made a strategic acquisition of the southern extension of the Carlin Vanadium deposit 6 miles south of Carlin, Nevada.

The company has gained mineral rights to an additional 200-meter strike length of the Carlin Vanadium deposit through an access and mineral lease agreement to approximately 80 acres of private (fee simple) land immediately adjacent to the Carlin Vanadium property (called the Cole Creek property). Six vertical holes drilled by Union Carbide in the 1960s on this adjacent ground demonstrated a southern continuance of the Carlin Vanadium deposit with thicknesses ranging from 10.67 meters to 28.96 meters (average 18.54 meters or 60.8 feet) and grades ranging from 0.37 to 0.82 percent vanadium oxide (average 0.57 percent V2O5). ...

... For the remainder of the announcement:

https://www.firstvanadium.com/index.php/news/2019/485-



Citigroup bankers have been holding talks with U.S. Treasury officials to figure out how to handle the deal, which was arranged with Nicolas Maduro's regime before the U.S. stepped up sanctions on his government, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. They said the contract at issue covers $1.1 billion of gold. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-22/citigroup-says-deal-w...

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