Modern Mining September 2018

COUNTRY FOCUS: MOZAMBIQUE

Control and Amit Sharma as Head – Geology for Mozambique. Both Baral and Gopal will be based in Fura’s administrative headquarters in Dubai and will be reporting to Ashim Roy, Vice President – Operations. Baral will be responsible for Fura’s overall technical functions, including mining, geology, processing plants and other technical services, while Gopal will be responsible for the security and risk functions. Sharma will be based in Montepuez and will be reporting to the Project Manager Mozambique. He will be responsible for the exploration and mining operations of Fura’s Mozambican ruby project. Prior to joining Fura, Baral served as General Manager for Kagem emerald mine near Kitwe in Zambia, the world’s largest supplier of emeralds and a subsidiary of Gemfields. Gopal has over 15 years of experience in the field of security and was previously Head of Security for MRM. Sharma also has a background with MRM. He and his team contributed to taking the mine from the exploration stage through to produc- tion. He has more than 15 years of experience in geology, of which eight years have been in Mozambique with MRM. 

two wash plants. Following completion of the acquisition, we plan to commence a significant bulk sampling project within these licences in the next few months with the mid-term objective of creating another world class, cash generative ruby mine to complement our iconic Coscuez emerald mine in Colombia.” Fura intends to invest up to C$25 million (subject to operational success) over a period of three years in a programme of drilling, bulk sampling and production mining on the properties. Other initiatives that Fura intends to launch include: the reconfiguration of the existing wash plant to increase efficiencies; extension and/or consolidation, where appro- priate, of certain of the ruby licences; and the implementation of grading and marketing sys- tems via Fura’s existing marketing platform. Since making this announcement, Fura has also entered into an agreement which will see it acquiring a further ruby prospecting licence in the Montepuez district from Azores Overseas Inc. Among Fura’s recent appointments are Dibya Baral as Director – Technical Services, Rahul Gopal as Director – Security and Risk

September 2018  MODERN MINING  35