Mozambique: Ruby miners denounce authorities’ involvement in illegal trafficking

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Mozambique: Ruby miners denounce authorities’ involvement in illegal trafficking

1:00 CAT | 28 Feb 2020

FILE: Miners in Montepuez. [File photo: DW]

Illegal ruby miners in northern Mozambique have denounced the authorities’ involvement in schemes and revealed the identity and location of the individuals concerned. Police deny the allegations and claim to have already dismantled the scheme in Cabo Delgado.

In Mozambique’s northern province of Cabo Delgado, illegal ruby mining is spreading its tentacles even within the legal concession area. It has a licence to exploit one of the largest ruby mines in the world, Montepuez Ruby Mining (MRM), a company that shows no signs of being able to control crime.

The whole business of illegal ruby mining and trading is growing with impunity. Without fear of consequences, an illegal ruby miner, whose name DW prefers not to disclose, reveals how part of this circuit works.

“We take the stones, we hide them, and then we go sell them in Montepuez, in the city,” he says. “As soon as we leave the MRM, the police no longer bother us. We sell [the stones] to foreigners in Montepuez district, who in turn take the stones out of the country to sell abroad.”

Another illegal ruby miner reveals the nationalities of the intermediaries. “The people who buy rubies from illegal mining are Thai and Somali,” he says. “The police know them, because they do not live in hiding. They occupy an entire neighbourhood in Montepuez. Some are married, and have families, children.”

Police say they dismantled the circuit

But, speaking through their spokesman in the province, Augusto Guta, the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) dispute these claims.

“In 2017, we carried out an operation to remove illegal miners from the Montepuez Ruby Mining concession area, and break the entire cycle of the exploitation, sale and removal of these stones from Mozambique to any part of the world. We carried out the operation and we think it ran successfully. Now, if these people exist right now, I can’t confirm it. What I do know is that, in 2017, that [operation] was dismantled,” he asserted.

The notion that illegal mining is a crime is not clear to some of the ruby miners. There are even some who would like to sell the precious stones to the MRM itself. But there are others who are aware of the criminality of what they are doing, including the consequences this entails.

“They do not sell to MRM because the company does not accept it [illegal mining]. If you are caught with stones, you go to jail,” one ruby miner says.

Obet Matine, inspector general of the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy (MIREME), explains that “the company cannot put illegal production on the legal circuit. It would be practically feeding the traffic”.

Illegal miners: the weakest link

This is a clarification that should be repeated to illegal miners, who are the weakest link in a scheme that shows every sign of being corrupt. The sparkle of rubies also attracts the eyes of powerful people, the prospector says.

“This is a business that the police know all about. Almost everyone wants to mine: the police commander, the head of the post, the administrators… .”

But the alleged involvement of the police in an illegal scheme that has long since come out of the shadows is denied by the corporation.
“I am not aware that the police are involved in the system of illegal exploitation of mineral resources, especially rubies in the mines of Namanhumbir,” police spokesman Augusto Guta says. “Especially because we have a specific force to protect natural resources and the environment, precisely to ensure that illegal exploitation in the area granted to the MRM finds no space.”

Source: Deutsche Welle