Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Montepuez Ruby Mining company (MRM), which operates in the Namanhumbir administrative post, Montepuez district, in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, has called on tourists based in the provincial capital, Pemba, to stop buying rubies from illegal sellers.
Montepuez Ruby Mining is 75 per cent owned by the UK-based company Gemfields and 25 per cent by its Mozambican partner, Mwiriti Limitada.
In a statement, the company claims that illegal ruby sellers are working in tourist hot spots in Pemba and they cooperate with foreign tourists “selling to them illegally mined rubies, at well known Pemba hotels.”
“In addition to overpaying for poor quality and illegally mined rubies, there are reports of certain complicit members of the authorities extorting money from tourists when threatening them for buying illegal rubies”, reads the document.
According to the note, this matter has already been shared with the authorities at district, provincial and national levels “in the hope that action will be taken more proactively against those who are financing, facilitating and encouraging the illegal trade in Mozambican rubies.”
“The illegal sale of rubies harms Mozambique’s economy and its people since it deprives the country of much-needed tax revenue from mineral resources”, adds the document.
Over the last year, the government ordered the withdrawal of mining licenses in Cabo Delgado, because some businesses, which were granted licenses years ago, are not investing. The province had 595 mining titles, but because they were unused at least 200 licenses have been withdrawn.
Cabo Delgado has attracted business groups in recent years who have requested vast areas for the exploitation of subsoil resources, particularly ruby, gold, tourmalines and other precious stones. But out of the various licences granted, currently only eight mining concessions are operating in Cabo Delgado.
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