Crystallex (KRY)

Today I bought 3 units of Crystallex....a Canadian gold miner. This is a pure gamble. I bought in at $3.00 US. They currently have the rights to the Las Cristinas deposit in Venezuela which is one of the richest (if not the richest) unmined gold deposits in the world. The potential problems with them are twofold:
1. They are waiting on an environmental permit before they can commence operations. In the meantime, they burn cash.
2. Venezuela is a political hot potato these days because of Hugo Chavez's propensity to piss off the USA and his socialist leanings. Recently they've nationalized the oil and telecom industries....so there's some fear that they will do the same to mining.

I think the main concern is #1. My feeling is that concern #2 is, if not unwarranted, at least overstated. I believe that mining is already nationalized and that this is priced into the stock. Venezuela owns the Las Cristinas deposit, not KRY. KRY just has the mining rights. Furthermore, even though Chavez nationalized the oil industry there are still many western oil companies doing business in Venezuela, so business with the Venezuelans can't be that bad.

I'll know by the spring if this was a good buy....