Maputo, Oct. 16, 2025 (Lusa) - Two Mozambique Republic Police (PRM) officers died on Wednesday during the raid of 40 illegal miners at the Montepuez Ruby Mining (MRM) mine in Cabo Delgado, Gemfields, which operates the concession, announced on Thursday.
"They attacked the officers at the gate, killing two, one of whom was the commander of the Force for the Protection of Natural Resources of Mozambique. No MRM employees or contractors were injured in the attack, and conditions at the site have been calm ever since," the company said in a statement sent to Lusa.
It adds that MRM "was informed that the attack could be related to the district immigration authorities who, earlier in the day, were investigating suspected illegal immigration in a local village and during which, according to reports, one person died".
Local information said that the cause of this case, near the village of Namanhumbir, Montepuez district, northern Mozambique, was the death of a child, allegedly shot by members of the Defence and Security Forces, on the same day, during an operation to check the legality of foreigners in the area, mainly gold miners.
Gemfields announced on 7 October that it had postponed the auction of rubies from Mozambique's Montepuez mine until the beginning of 2026, citing the impacts of daily sabotage by hundreds of illegal miners at the new unit under construction in Cabo Delgado.
In a statement sent to Lusa, the company said that it had "taken the decision to postpone the usual ruby auction from November/December to January/February" next year due to "the previously announced delay in the definitive start-up of the second processing plant", which has "now been aggravated by the actions of illegal miners".
It went on to explain that, "although definitive operationalisation is still scheduled for October", the operation of the new plant "has been significantly affected over the last week by illegal miners, who currently number between 250 and 400 a day, sabotaging the plant's supply infrastructure".
"In addition, the illegally mined rubies leaving the Montepuez region have a detrimental impact on market prices and Mozambique's tax revenues from its ruby resources," it pointed out.
MRM plans to triple processing at its ruby mine in northern Mozambique to 600 tonnes per hour, a source from Gemfields, which owns 75% of MRM - with a concession area of 34,966 hectares - told Lusa in June, with the remaining 25% held by Mozambican company Mwiriti, in an investment of $70 million (€59.8 million).
Gemfields, which owns and operates the mine, recognised at the time that the construction of the second ruby processing unit, called PP2, at MRM, represented "a crucial project to increase the production of premium rubies and generate additional revenue for the group by the end of 2025".
The second unit also leaves open the possibility of expansion “to other mining areas” in that MRM concession, which currently employs 1,300 workers, 94% of whom are Mozambican.
The previous document on the economic forecast for 2025 estimated the production of 4,143,832 carats of rubies in Mozambique's mining concessions from January to December, making it the “product with the greatest weight in the overall structure of precious and semi-precious stones” produced in the country, with 76% of the total destined for export.
Ruby production in Mozambique had soared in 2024 to almost four million carats, an increase of 46% on the previous year, according to previous government figures.
PVJ/ADB // ADB.
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