Venezuela to offer state assets to private investors

Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, said in a televised address on Thursday, October 29, 2026, that the government is well along in valuing “non-essential” state assets so they can be offered to private investors or returned to their former owners, and that “important negotiations” are under way in mining, covering gold, aluminum and iron. In the same address she said the government has signed 61 oil agreements and is negotiating 44 more under the hydrocarbons law passed in January. She named no companies and no assets.

What is known

• What she said about the assets. Rodríguez said she ordered an assessment of the non-essential assets the state holds, to decide which can be offered to the private sector and which go back to former owners, and that “this process is already well advanced,” in Reuters’ English rendering of her Spanish. She cited the constitutional protection of private property (Reuters, La República, Finanzas Digital).
• Where it comes from. According to Reuters, Rodríguez set up a government commission in April to audit and value state-owned assets, including energy, power and mining infrastructure. People familiar with the matter told the agency the commission has been classifying assets since then.
• What she said about mining. Rodríguez said important negotiations are under way in the mining sector, on gold, aluminum and iron (Reuters). Finanzas Digital describes them as covering both extraction and processing (in Spanish).
• Oil numbers (from the government). The government says it has signed 61 oil agreements and is negotiating 44 contracts under the hydrocarbons law approved in January. It has not released details of the 61 (Reuters, La República).
• The backdrop. Reuters says the move could reverse part of the nationalizations ordered by Hugo Chávez, which left more than a dozen international arbitration claims, most of them unsettled by the government.
• How it fits with our earlier reporting. In October, Venezuela shipped aluminum from CVG Venalum to the U.S., the state received machinery to produce more gold at the Chocó plant, and Venezuela laid out its oil and mining plan for the IMF.

Where the reports differ: El Diario, whose article uses images from Prensa Presidencial and EFE, says (in Spanish) that the state “will assess” which assets are non-essential and that mining negotiations are being “prepared,” with no further detail. Reuters, La República and Finanzas Digital say the process is already well advanced and that the talks are under way.

What is not known

• Which assets count as “non-essential.” No report names a company, a mine, a plant or a property.
• Whether mining or CVG companies are on the list. Reuters says the April commission covers mining infrastructure, but not that the aluminum, iron or gold companies are among the assets.
• Who is negotiating on gold, aluminum and iron, what is on the table (a sale, a concession, a partner) and when anything would be signed. Rodríguez gave no names or deadlines.
• How anything would go back to “former owners”: through compensation, direct return or a settlement of the pending arbitration claims.
• The full text of the address. We did not find an official transcript on government sites. This story relies on what Reuters, EFE and the outlets that republish them reported from the speech, which is why her words appear paraphrased rather than as direct quotes (apart from the Reuters phrase above, which is theirs).

Why it matters

Most of the 2026 headlines on Venezuelan mining have been one-off deals with foreign companies, such as the El Callao gold concession that U.S. firm Heeney Capital says it signed in September, according to its release. This time the government is describing a general rule, with the state keeping some assets and handing others to private owners, and it puts mining on the same list as oil. If that rule becomes concrete, it could change who produces and sells the country’s gold, aluminum and iron, including to U.S. buyers. For now it is an announcement with no list, no prices and no dates.

Where Venezuela’s gold is and who mines it: Venezuela gold: where it is, output and who mines it. On iron, see iron ore in Venezuela; on bauxite, the raw material for aluminum, see bauxite in Venezuela. All of the country’s minerals: Venezuela Minerals: List, Locations and the Most Valuable.