Mozambique: How are security measures being enforced at Montepuez Ruby Mining?

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Mozambique: How are security measures being enforced at Montepuez Ruby Mining?

1:59 CAT | 11 Feb 2020

Illegal prospectors at a ruby mine in Montepuez, Cabo Delgado. [File photo: DW]

The collapse of a ruby mine which left more than 10 dead, several injured and an undetermined number still buried was the result of infractions committed by illegal miners. How far are security procedures being followed?

“This happened the day before yesterday, yesterday and today. Many people died when the land collapsed on top of the miners. The number of miners killed in my community is 18 and four injured. In total, there are 42 dead and 25 were dug out. There are others who will not be able to be dug out because they are already decomposing,” says Fernandinho Mueda, former gold digger from Muaja, Ancuabe district, next to Montepuez in Cabo Delgado, where the incident occurred. But official figures point to about ten dead, including one Guinean.

Among the victims are children and women. But, according to Mueda, “There was no support – the police are [just] sitting there. They are limited by the population, because they are there en masse, there are a lot of them.”

“That there is a foreigner, a white man,” the ex-garimpeiro also reveals. “He managed to talk the population round to helping him remove the buried bodies with heavy machinery. That white man works right there [where the collapse took place].”

Gaps in the MRM security system?

Chemnitz - Obete Matine ist Generalinspektor von MIREME (DW/N. Issufo) — *Obete Matine, Inspector General at MIREME*

The land collapse started on Tuesday night (04/02), at a time when around 1,500 miners were illegally mining rubies in the vicinity of the Montepuez Ruby Mining (MRM). The mining company told DW that it had security in the area, and has promised to give further details soon. But the miners in the region make it clear that security measures were ineffective.

“The population entered [The MRM mine] because of the police, it was they who let them in,” Mueda says. “But how do they even enter the central, where there are police and in one company stones are extracted? Security is stopped, they neither force nor are in charge, they’re just letting people in.”

What do the authorities foresee in terms of security?

Asked to clarify security measures as they apply to mining, the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy (MIREME) says that legislation establishes that the holder must keep his concession area safe, but does not define the mechanisms, which are at the discretion of the operator.

Is it possible if there were security breaches in the Montepuez Ruby Mining concession area? Obete Matine, MIREME’s general inspector, replies: “We need to know the mechanisms that the company settled upon to guarantee its safe area. What we do know is that there was an invasion of the area by more than 1,500 ‘garimpeiros’, and that it is not easy to contain a situation like that.”

Matine nevertheless notes that some safety aspects would have been taken care of by MRM. “The different pits along the various sites were considered to be areas which, in principle, did not call for special protection, and it was these areas that were invaded. It was an area with proximity and with indication that it is a fenced area – a dangerous area.”

Poverty at the source of the problem?

Gold miner Julio Ismael, also from Muaja, acknowledges that there was a violation, but he offers some excuse for it. “We work there looking for something to eat. For example, here, wherever you are working in terms of mining it is forbidden, and they expel us. So, in this scenario of hunger and poverty that we experience, we go in there to get something to eat. Getting there is a big problem.”

Government in operations

A determination of the responsibilities in this case will not happen soon, but there are already development in this direction.

“We are working on the matter, but I cannot say more because the provincial government is organising operations. We are collecting information,” provincial director of Mineral Resources and Energy in Cabo Delgado, Marizane Rosse, says.

Source: Deutsche Welle