BY Reuters
— 11:22 AM ET 02/07/2011

CARACAS, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Russian-Canadian miner Rusoro said on Monday that it was interested in the Las Cristinas gold project after the Venezuelan government withdrew a permit for Crystallex International (KRY

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) to develop the site.

"If the government is interested in working with us on the project (Las Cristinas), we are ready to tackle this challenge with the necessary international financing," Andrea Padovani, Rusoro's president in Venezuela, told Reuters by telephone.

"If the government would like our help to start this project, of course we are going to accept the challenge." (Reporting by Diego Ore; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Lisa Von Ahn)

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