Modern Mining September 2018

COUNTRY FOCUS: MOZAMBIQUE

New player enters ruby sector in Mozambique Apart from its graphite assets, Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado Province is also famous for its ruby endowment. Production of rubies in the province is currently dominated by a single company, Gemfields Group (previously Pallinghurst Resources), but it could be challenged in future by a new player, Fura Gems Inc, which has built up a considerable landholding in the area.

R ubies were first discovered in the Montepuez district of Cabo Delga- do in 2009 and the area has since emerged as a major producer of the gemstones, accounting over half – indeed as much as 80 % by some estimates – of the world’s ruby output. In the early days of the Montepuez ruby field, all production was through artisanal operations. This started to change from 2011 when Gemfields established the Montepuez Ruby Mine (MRM). The mine, a shallow open-pit operation, has since been responsible for generating a reported US$407 million in ruby sales. Founded early last year and listed on the TSX-V, Fura is run by Dev Shetty, President and CEO, who was previously Chief Operating Officer of Gemfields. The company, which has a 76 % stake in the Coscuez emerald mine in Colombia, acquired its first ruby licences in Mozambique last year. More recently, it has considerably extended its presence in

and successfully building the world’s larg- est ruby mine (MRM) in Mozambique. Bulk sampling activities are expected to commence before the end of the year. Dev Shetty, Fura’s President and CEO, com- mented: “I am pleased to announce the merger of these ruby assets with those of our existing licences in Mozambique transforming Fura into the largest ruby group by licence area in the country. Our team has in-depth experience in the Mozambique ruby sector having previously worked in Mozambique since 2011 where they were instrumental in discovering and devel- oping what is largely considered the world’s largest ruby deposit. “Based on our extensive work in-country, we believe these combined licences to be some of the highest quality ruby licences available in Mozambique. “The initial ground work has already been done by Mustang and Regius, which includes significant exploration and the construction of

This processing plant erected by Mustang for its bulk sampling programmes is one of the assets that Fura will inherit. It has a capacity of 1 500 tonnes per day.

the country, announcing in July this year the acquisi- tion of nine ruby assets in Mozambique from ASX- listed Mustang Resources and Regius Resources Group for a total consideration of A$15 million (approxi- mately C$14,6 million). Fura said at the time that it would hold the larg- est ruby land package in Mozambique of 1 104 km 2 on completion of the acquisi- tion (expected by the end of November this year) and that the Mozambique operations would be run by its newly formed team of gemstone experts who were previously involved with discovering

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