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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Illegal miners try luck in Mozambique ruby rush

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Deep inside a forest, sweating men haul earth out of rough excavation holes and carry it in bags on their backs to a stream.


Then they sift for the small, red stones that could make their fortune — miners say they have sold single rubies for thousands of dollars, many times the local monthly wage which is typically under $200.


In northern Mozambique, informal — and illegal — ruby mining is a tough business that has attracted thousands of itinerant workers despite strenuous crackdowns by police and private guards.


The ruby deposits, which were discovered only nine years ago, are relatively accessible in shallow ground, triggering the sudden birth of a frantic wildcat mining industry.


Mozambique now accounts for 80 per cent of global ruby production — but the illegal mining is a far cry from the giant mining companies and the chic auction houses in Singapore where millions of dollars of gems are sold.


“I’m here because of poverty,” Faque Almeida, 46, who has spent much of the last eight years in the forests of Montepuez in search of the blood-red gemstones, said.


He said he left his home province of Nampula, 400 km south, unaware that it was illegal to look for rubies in Montepuez district after the government sold the rights to a large mining company.


“Last year I was arrested, I stayed in jail for 14 days. I was released when my family paid 14,000 meticais (about $240) to the police,” he said.


Montepuez Ruby Mining (MRM), a subsidiary of London-based Gemfields, won the mining rights to 36,000 hectares of ruby-rich land in Mozambique in 2011.


The arrival of the British mining firm saw the authorities and an army of private security officers swoop down on the area and the hundreds of illicit miners known as “garimpeiros.”


“Sometimes holes collapse and fall on top of us. I’ve lost many friends and a brother here. But the biggest problem is the police and security guards,” said Fernando Zulu. “They come, arrest us, torture us and even bury our colleagues in the holes. “Our demand is that the government authorise us to dig, extract the rubies and sell them to the government.” To evade the authorities, miners like Zulu have retreated deeper into the forest, hours on foot from the nearest road. — AFP


Joaquim Nhamirre


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