Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambique expects to increase ruby production by 3% in 2026, to more than four million carats, with the resumption of activities by one of the companies operating in the country, according to Government data.
In the budget forecasts for next year, the Government states it expects total production of 4,062,546 carats, compared with the 3,944,219 carats expected for this year and the 3,946,506 produced in 2024.
“This forecast is associated with the halt in production activities of the third largest producer of this gemstone,” states the Ministry of Finance document.
Around 70% of this production is currently for export, which the Government intends to raise to 79% by 2029.
Revenues from ruby exports fell 30% in the first quarter of the year, year-on-year, to US$5.1 million (€4.4 million), according to previous data from Mozambique’s central bank.
This performance compares with US$7.2 million (€6.3 million) from January to March 2024, still according to the most recent statistical report on exports.
Gemfields has already postponed to early 2026 the ruby auction from the Mozambican Montepuez mine, citing the impacts of the daily “sabotage” by hundreds of illegal miners in the new unit under construction in that area of Cabo Delgado.
In a statement released in October, the company, which leads Montepuez Ruby Mining (MRM), said it “has taken the decision to postpone the usual November/December ruby auction to January/February” of next year, due to the “previously announced delay in the definitive commissioning of the second processing plant”, which was “now worsened by the action of illegal miners”.
Gemfields explained that the operation of the new plant “was significantly affected during the past week by illegal miners who, currently between 250 and 400 per day, are sabotaging the plant’s supply infrastructure”.
“In addition, the illegally extracted rubies leaving the Montepuez region have a detrimental impact on market prices and on Mozambique’s tax revenues from its ruby resources. Gemfields and MRM continue to work with the relevant Mozambican government authorities,” the same text reads.
MRM expects to triple processing at the ruby mine in northern Mozambique to 600 tonnes per hour, a Gemfields source told Lusa in June. Gemfields holds 75% of MRM – with a concession area of 34,966 hectares – with the remaining 25% held by the Mozambican company Mwiriti, in an investment of US$70 million (€59.8 million).
Gemfields, which owns and operates the mine, acknowledged at the time that construction of the second ruby processing unit, designated PP2, at MRM, represented “a crucial project to increase production of ‘premium’ rubies and generate additional revenues for the group by the end of 2025”.
The second unit also leaves open the possibility of expansion “to other mining areas” within MRM’s concession, which currently employs 1,300 workers, 94% of whom are Mozambican.
