Editor’s Note
This article recounts the serendipitous 2009 discovery of Mozambique’s first ruby by woodcutter Suleimane Hassane. From a single stone revealed by rainfall, the Montepuez deposit has grown to supply nearly half the world’s rubies, illustrating how chance finds can reshape global markets.
Suleimane Hassane discovered Mozambique’s first ruby without even intending to. Washed by the rain, the rare red gem appeared to this illiterate woodcutter by a river near Montepuez, in the north of the country, before landing in Bangkok, Thailand, under unknown circumstances. That was in 2009. Since then, the unsuspected deposit has produced more than 10 million carats, nearly half of the rubies sold worldwide.
In eight years, the arrival of foreign companies has profoundly disrupted this remote region of Africa. The British company Gemfields, the Australian Mustang Resources, and soon the Canadian Colombian emerald specialist, Fura Gems, which announced on Tuesday, September 19, the purchase of new concessions in the area, have generated millions of dollars in revenue, with as much fallout for the Mozambican state, one of the poorest in the world.
In return, the influx of thousands of artisanal miners, clashes with security forces, homicides, and violence have transformed Montepuez into the Wild West. For the first time, on September 26, one of the mining operations was the target of an armed robbery, and a guard was killed.