Venezuela Enacts New Mining Law, Expanding Access and Simplifying the Tax Regime

Venezuela published the new Organic Law of Mines in Extraordinary Issue No. 7.020 of the Official Gazette on 16 April 2026. The new law repeals and replaces:

• The 1999 Mining Law (Decree No. 295), which historically restricted private and foreign investments in strategic minerals; and
• The 2015 Gold and Strategic Minerals Law (Decree No. 2.165), which reserved the exploration and exploitation of gold and other strategic minerals exclusively to the state.

Under the new law, the following are …