Mozambique: Insecurity in Cabo Delgado is ruby miner’s main challenge – official

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Mozambique: Insecurity in Cabo Delgado is ruby miner’s main challenge – official

10:42 CAT | 03 May 2024

FILE - The Montepuez ruby mine in Cabo Delgado province covers 33,600 hectares of one of the most significant ruby deposits in the world. [File photo: Gemfields]

Montepuez Ruby Mining (MRM), which mines rubies in northern Mozambique, on Thursday pointed to insecurity in Cabo Delgado as one of the main challenges in its operations, in a year in which the group is preparing to increase production. ‘We, as a company, are obviously not immune or insensitive to the current situation in Cabo Delgado province, which in some way has already been affecting our project,’ MRM’s director of corporate relations, Raime Pachinuapa, told Lusa on the sidelines of the 10th edition of the Mozambique Mining and Energy Conference (MMEC[ in Maputo.

Although there are no records, at least publicly, of direct rebel incursions into the Montepuez district, where the company has operations, according to Raime Pachinuapa, the limitations and fears linked to security are jeopardising MRM’s ‘supply chain’.

‘There are already some obstacles in this regard and even from the point of view of retaining the workers themselves (…) and retaining people in hostile environments is not easy. But obviously, as a company, we’re working on it,’ he emphasised.

The safety concerns come in a year in which the company is preparing to increase its processing capacity, with plans to go from 200 to 600 tonnes per hour next year, as part of an investment recently approved by the company’s board of directors.

‘It’s clear from this alone that the prospects for future production are good. As a result of this, we have already been doing some work from the point of view of hiring labour, let’s say, to cope with this investment (…). We’re talking about the impact from the point of view of additional labour of more or less 400 people,’ he added.

Despite the positive projections, in addition to the impact of the insurgency in Cabo Delgado, the company continues to warn of the consequences of illegal mining in the region, denouncing what it calls the ‘modern slavery’ to which many young people are subjected, at the behest of gem traffickers on the international market, in the deposits within the company’s concession.

MRM has almost 34,000 hectares of ruby mining concessions in Cabo Delgado and is the main investor in ruby mining in Mozambique, being 75% owned by Gemfields and 25% by Mozambican company Mwiriti Limitada.

Since the start of mining (2012), ruby auctions have accumulated revenues of more than US$1.055 billion ( €982.7 million) and paid out US$257.4 million (€239.7 million) to the Mozambican state in the same period, according to a Gemfields report released this month.

Cabo Delgado province has been facing an armed insurgency for six years, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.

The insurgency, which has flared up again since December 2023 with several attacks on the general public and armed forces, has led to a military response since July 2021, with support first from Rwanda, with more than 2,000 troops, and from southern African countries, liberating districts near gas projects.

Source: Lusa