Mozambique: Cabo Delgado ruby mine plans triple processing with $70M investment

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Mozambique: Cabo Delgado ruby mine plans triple processing with $70M investment

10:59 CAT | 18 Jun 2025

File photo: Gemfields

Montepuez Ruby Mining (MRM) plans to triple processing at its ruby mine in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, to 600 tonnes per hour, a Gemfields source told Lusa on Tuesday, in an investment of €61.2 million.

When questioned by Lusa, Gemfields, which owns and operates the mine, acknowledged that the construction of the second ruby processing unit, known as PP2, at Montepuez represents “a crucial project to increase the production of premium rubies and generate additional revenue for the group by the end of 2025”.

It should be completed by the end of the first half of this year, adds Gemfields, which owns 75% of MRM – with a concession area of 34,966 hectares – with the remaining 25% owned by the Mozambican company Mwiriti.

“PP2 is a secondary processing unit, which means that a larger amount of ore can be processed simultaneously. The addition of the second unit should triple MRM’s processing capacity from the current 200 tonnes per hour to 600 tonnes per hour,” explains the same source, looking ahead to the processing of the mine’s stock and the availability on the market of “rubies with additional variations in size and colour”.

The second unit also leaves open the possibility of expansion “to other mining areas” in that MRM concession, which currently employs 1,300 workers, 94% of whom are Mozambican.

“The investment in PP2 is the largest investment ever made by the Gemfields group and represents our ongoing commitment to the province of Cabo Delgado, to Mozambique and to our local communities, for whom the creation of additional jobs and economic development are of crucial importance,” said MRM’s managing director, Prahalad Kumar Singh.

Gemfields says the investment amounts to US$70 million (€61.2 million), excluding taxes and fees, of which US$60 million (€52.5 million) has already been invested, with plans to expand the mining portfolio by 2026.

When fully operational, the second processing plant “is expected to triple the processing rate and therefore significantly increase ruby production and revenue” from the Mozambican mine, at a time when the coloured gemstone market is expected to “recover and continue its upward trajectory in the medium–long term”.

“Gemfields remains confident that the company and the sector have a promising growth phase ahead,” the same source concluded.

Gemfields is a British world leader in responsible mining and marketing of coloured gemstones and, in addition to MRM, is the operator and owner of 75% of the Kagem emerald mine in Zambia, presented as “the largest emerald mine in the world”, as well as bulk sampling licences in Ethiopia, among others.

According to the latest G Factor for Natural Resources report, published on June 5, 2024 by Lusa, the MRM mine recorded total revenue of US$117.2 million (€102.5 million) in 2024.

‘Factor G for Natural Resources’ is an indicator developed by Gemfields to measure the percentage of natural resource companies’ revenues that are paid to the host country’s government through direct taxes and dividends when the government is a shareholder. This indicator aims to promote transparency in the sharing of wealth generated by resources such as oil, gas, minerals, timber and fisheries. In short, Factor G is a transparency indicator that shows how much money from natural resources is returned to the local community through the government.

The previous report, from 2023, identified total revenues from that Mozambican operation of US$151.3 million (€132.4 million).

Since Gemfields acquired 75% of MRM in February 2012, the year mining began, with ruby auctions starting two years later, that mine has accumulated revenues in excess of US$ 1.172 billion (€1.026 billion), paying the Mozambican state US$285.5 million (€250 million) over the same period.

The mine resumed operations last January after work was halted following social unrest in the area in the wake of the general elections on October 9, 2024 in Mozambique.

Source: Lusa