Editor’s Note
This report from northern Mozambique reveals the harsh reality of informal ruby mining, where individuals risk everything for survival in the shadows of a global industry.
Under the rainforest canopy, they slip one by one into the tunnels and then emerge, out of breath, their arms laden with bags of sandy earth from which they hope to extract the few precious stone fragments that will allow them to survive.
In northern Mozambique, which supplies 80% of the world’s ruby production, hundreds of informal miners defy hunger, the police, and a multinational corporation day and night to scrape up the illegal crumbs of this stone’s trade.
Faque Almeida, 46, is one of these wretched of the earth. For eight years, he has been digging in the undergrowth of the Montepuez district in search of small red fragments.
confides this Muslim from Nampula (center). Having lost a leg in an accident, Faque Almeida must feed four wives and 22 children.
The chance discovery of the first rubies ten years ago sent a fever through the entire region. Thousands of people flocked there to snatch a few gems before the Mozambican government got involved.
In 2011, it granted a 36,000-hectare concession to the company Montepuez Ruby Mining (MRM), three-quarters owned by the British group Gemfields and the rest by a general well-connected in Maputo.
In the eyes of the law, MRM is the only entity authorized to extract and sell the rubies of Montepuez, a trade that has officially earned it 350 million euros since 2012.
But the arrival of the British giant, its barbed wire, and its armed security agents did not drive away the “garimpeiros” (illegal miners). Nor did the police, accused by the miners of brutality and even summary executions.
says Fernando Zulu.
he claims.
These practices have been documented by several NGOs. Last year, the country’s lawyers’ association denounced the “acts of torture, violence (…), persecution and threats carried out by various elements of the security forces.”
The police and Gemfields deny tolerating any violence within their ranks.
concedes Gemfields CEO Sean Gilbertson,
That day, about a hundred illegal miners were foraging the ground with pickaxes. They continue because part of the loot extracted from the underground feeds the black market.
According to testimonies gathered by AFP, the stones unearthed by informal miners are sold to traders from Senegal, Nigeria, or Mali, who do their business along the road leading to the concession.
The goods then fall into the hands of “wholesalers” from Thailand, Sri Lanka, or Vietnam.
explains one of them on condition of anonymity.
This circuit guarantees the “garimpeiros” enough to survive.
Originally from a village in neighboring Tanzania, Cassiano Johane settled in Montepuez in 2011 and still digs there.
he pleads,
If the police tolerate this black market, the miners claim in unison, it’s because they benefit greatly from it.
testifies Leonardo Vaneque, 23.
he asks:
The head of Gemfields acknowledges corruption among state agents.
he admits,
The police claim to have taken the problem of illegal miners head-on.
assures the provincial police spokesman, Augusto Guta.
he adds.
assures Mozambican Minister of Mineral Resources, Max Tonela.
The task promises to be arduous because the miners are as determined as they are desperate.
swears Luis Elias, 42.
he insists,