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Article

28 Feb 2020

Author:
Emma Rumney and Helen Reid, Reuters

Mozambique: Four workers injured after attack from artisanal miners on Gemfields ruby operation

"Artisanal miners attack Gemfields' Mozambique ruby unit, injuring four", 25 February 2020.

Artisanal miners torched a car belonging to miner Gemfields’ Mozambique operation...and attacked the occupants with pickaxes, injuring three employees and one security contractor, the company said.

Gemfields owns 75% of Montepuez Ruby Mining (MRM), which operates in northern Mozambique. The mine, considered to be the world’s largest deposit of rubies, is located in a region rife with crime, illegal mining and that is home to a nascent Islamist insurgency. The attack follows an incident earlier in February when 800 artisanal miners invaded a pit belonging to MRM, 11 of whom died when parts of the pit collapsed...

MRM says the artisanal miners are exploited by illegal ruby-smuggling syndicates, and receive only a fraction of the true market value of the rubies they obtain...