{"id":2392,"date":"2020-06-02T11:35:15","date_gmt":"2020-06-02T09:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org\/news\/?p=2392"},"modified":"2020-08-30T12:03:57","modified_gmt":"2020-08-30T10:03:57","slug":"betrayed-friendship-and-the-death-rubies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/betrayed-friendship-and-the-death-rubies\/","title":{"rendered":"Betrayed friendship and the Death rubies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Selemani Hassani the man who discover the Ruby in Montepuez\" width=\"1778\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/O2POUprTKRk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>By:Est\u00e1cio Valoi<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Namanhumbir \u2013 Montepuez, northeast of Mozambique, in Cabo Delgado Province, is where for the first time a deposit of rubies was discovered, later considered the biggest in the world. An area of considerable richness and royalties, the 33.,600 ha ruby mining concession is now currently owned 40% by the mining company Montepuez Ruby Mining\/Gemfield (MRM) as the result of a joint-venture between the Mozambican Mwiriti with 25% and its British counterpart Gemfield with 75%.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>In an on-going race held by multinationals such as Fura,\u00a0 Montepuez Ruby Mining, New Energy, Gems Rock , Mwiriti, and Balama Graphite in Montepuez, Balama, and other districts controlling the red rubies, soils, and other minerals, local communities\u2019 associations and citizens are left out, with no land left for mining or farming. Still \u2018promises.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Although the law prescribes that mining resources should first benefit local communities, this seems to fall apart. Instead, multinationals and their government associates keep accumulating millions and millions of dollars, where some don\u2019t even pay taxes.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Most mining companies don\u2019t contribute to Montepuez\u2019 District. This fact was confirmed by Rhiade Abdul Gafur from the Internal Taxes Operations in Cabo Delgado. He said that the mining industry is helping to boost the local economy, but that 2019 was not the best year since the tax collection was 3.5 million Meticais below the planned target of 5.563. Meticais, This corresponds to a realization rate of 63.64%, a negative deviation of about 2 million Meticais, that is 36.36%. In the lead, Montepuez Ruby Mining is the biggest contributor in this unit, which channelled to the Government coffers about 26.34%, about 932.9 million Meticais from June to July in production taxes and personal income taxes (ISPC).<\/p>\n<p>In the graphite area, TWIGG has been paying IRPS of the first category, the payment of non-residents for the acquisition or service and goods provision. IRPC delivery was considerably reduced because of the reduction on the number of workers and , according to its income statement, is still undergoing losses. Others are still in a prospection and survey phase, and only pay superficial taxes and insignificant production taxes, like FURA who in December channelled about 2 million Meticais. Mustang, although it operates in Cabo Delgado, contributes in general little to Montepuez, complying with its tax obligations in Maputo. REGIUS, handed in for the Government coffers about 263 thousand Meticais for the 2019 economic year for IRPS of first category. There is also Mwiriti, who like REGIUS, is still in a prospection and survey phase, Rhiade said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>From June of 2014, MRM started auctioning the Namanhumbir rubies, netting them a total 584.1 million USD. In 2019, the 13th auction in Singapore resulted in an income of 71.5 million USD. The growth, according to the finance department in Cabo Delgado, comes after the compulsive removal of millions of illegal miners, commonly known as ruby \u201cgarimpeiros\/prospectors and smugglers\u201d in Namanhumbir &#8211; Montepuez.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>However, hostilities between artisan miners and mining companies continue, from spanking, to people being shot, dozens of deaths as a result of mines collapsing, detentions of the local prospectors in Montepuez\u2019s jail and mining workers wounded allegedly by these local prospectors and a burned vehicle, chiefly at MRM\u2019s concession.<\/p>\n<p>Selemane is not the only one, however, who has suffered from his discovery of the rubies deposit\u00a0 in 2009,\u00a0 later\u00a0 expropriated by General Raimundo Pachinuapa, &#8211; member of the Mozambique Freedom Front (FRELIMO) and ex-governor of Cabo Delgado Province, together with Asghar Fakhraleali, both owners of the company Mwiriti, Lda. This company came to join Gemfields later through a Joint-Venture, acquiring from the Mozambican authorities a license to mine an area of 33,600 ha, where Pachinuapa and his partner Asghar detain a participation of 25%, while Gemfields detains 75% (Montepuez Rubi Mining \/ MRM).<\/p>\n<p>General Pachninuapa states that he paid for the rights to use the land, although this is refuted by the local organizations and management committee members in Namanhumbir, whose job is to educate the local population about their rights of use of the land as well as of the mineral resources. They said that \u201cthe general payed nothing\u201d, describing the act as expropriation of land.<\/p>\n<p>Local communities, citizens of a country rich in minerals that, according to the law, should primarily benefit Mozambicans, have instead suffered from discoveries such as that of Selemane.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Betrayed friendship<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Selemane a poor and illiterate individual, who could not contest and demand his rights, in this unjust expropriation of Pachinuapa, even with binoculars still can\u2019t envisage some of the millions of USD gathered by MRM, not to mention the promises made by his friend Ashgar that he would build him a house and give him a job. Instead he saw the world through bars, a \u2018thief of rubies and enemy\u2019, arrested in Montepuez jail for 35 days and only freed on the 3rd of March of 2020 after paying a bail of 40 thousand Meticais. This according to local sources in Namanhumbir.<\/p>\n<p><strong>On the 2nd of February of 2020, on an attempt to speak to Sulemane Assane via phone, a feminine voice answers and responds to my question saying: &#8211; I am Lu\u00edsa, Sulemane\u2019s wife. He was arrested in Montepuez\u2019s jail by Ashgar and Raim Pachinuapa. I was there.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The following day, after circulating around Namahumbir, on the side of the police station, our team arrived at Sulemane\u2019s house. Lu\u00edsa, his wife, and their three daughters aged between 2 and 8 years-old and a friend were sitting there. We spoke and both wife and friend confirmed what had already been mentioned. Sulemane had been in jail for two weeks, arrested \u2013 according to Lu\u00edsa \u2013 by Asghar Fakhralealii and Raim Pachinuapa claiming that he had been digging rubies. Arrested in a jail where they\u00a0 wouldn\u2019t allow even his own wife to visit him. Except for being allowed to take him food, she hasn\u2019t seen Sulemane since the first day he was arrested.<\/p>\n<p>According to Lu\u00edsa, before being taken to jail, Sulemane was first taken for a ramble in the area where the relocation houses are being built, then to the police station in Namanhumbir, to the clinic (the mining office) in Muapeia, the rcentre of the rubies, and finally to jail.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with Sulemane in November 2018, he kept \u201cpraying\u201d for better days. Now, arrested or not, he sees the rubies going past in front of his eyes. Sulemane, \u201cthe plank splitter\u201d, then told us the story of his discovery in the woods of Namanhumbir, when after walking a long distance, taken by \u201chunger and God\u201d, he saw a red stone; &#8211; I took it to a white man named Ashgar, the owner of a field and he said that it was a precious stone (Rubi). Together with Ashgar, many people came to meet me in the bush. With Ashgar\u2019s promises that he would help me in the mine, build a house for me and my family, Sulemane dreamt of bonanza days. But up to now he hasn\u2019t complied with any of them: &#8211; I think that guy is a bandit because, with my life up to now, I am suffering.<\/p>\n<p>Tom and Jerry! \u201cWhen Ashgar sees me, he even gets upset, he arrests me in jail. He doesn\u2019t like to see me. He says I stole 20 thousand Meticais from him. I can see the rubies being taken, my heart hurts! I thought things would improve. With the ruby, God was giving me an opportunity to have money for the rest of my life. But today they are eating my money and even say that I am crazy (psychopath),\u201d said Sulemane.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFriend Ashgar\u201d, of the promises, \u201conly brought me some zinc roof-sheets, planks, some bags of cement and the doors, material that the family used to build the house. Ashgar didn\u2019t give us money. Sulemane is now in jail, they caught him in the bush. Now I\u2019m here with these three daughters of mine. No one gives us food,\u201d said Lu\u00edsa while we were coming home.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ruby, \u201ca common or singular good?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A \u201c common good,\u201d not \u201cexclusive,\u201d says the finance provincial direction in Cabo Delgado. 2.75% of the income tax channelled to the National Treasure, as the production tax over Mineral Resources, are to \u201cbenefit\u201d the communities where the resources are extracted.\u00a0 , as the company increases its income by marketing the minerals, in this case\u00a0 the rubies, the amount channelled to the communities should also increase.<\/p>\n<p>The Mining Law (law no 20\/2014), which intends to safeguard the national interests through tax dispositions, expects that the mining benefits must be extended to the communities in\u00a0 this form of 2.75%. But the fact is that, since 2014, the communities never benefited, only the FRELIMO party\/Government, as previously reported. The war on raiding the Montepuez rubies has, then, been a very agreeable one for Gemfields. We see\u00a0 most of the guilt in a criminalized and cruel Mozambican State.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.zammagazine.com\/chronicle\/chronicle-32\/565-the-plunder-route-to-panama<\/p>\n<p>As for Sulemane in Namanhumbir, many others\u00a0 have the rubies as their source of livelihood. The 2.75% are not making a difference, which\u00a0 makes them have to go back to the illegal mining so they can be able to buy soap, food and other necessities: \u201cWe also don\u2019t have work, we just go and dig,\u201d said the miners.<\/p>\n<p><strong>But the prospection is not done only by the so called \u201cgarimpeiros, directors, and elements of the police\u201d, but\u00a0 also by some mining companies like Mustang<\/strong>. In the first week of November 2017, we visited some mining areas, from the Ancuabe District heading to Montepuez, we crossed the Megaruma River through the Nem\u00e1lia Village. For about 2 hours we drove through the bush up to the other margin of the river by the same name, close to 5980 L where hundreds of local prospectors \u2013 \u201cgarimpeiros\u201d \u2013 extract rubies, especially for Mustang, at the time with no license for it. Mustang has a facility in the area and supplies the equipment to the \u201cgarimpeiros\u201d and was involved in ruby smuggling using cheap labour. In September 2017, Christian Jordaan, managing-director of MUSTANG,\u00a0 promised but never sent the license as requested by ZAMMAGAZINE.<\/p>\n<p>At the time,\u00a0 community leader and hundreds of \u201cgarimpeiros\u201d that we interviewed told us, and\u00a0 we then\u00a0 saw for ourselves in their facility, that there were many machines managed by a man in charge working for the mining company, . \u201c The chief\u00a0 also speaks English and\u00a0 came from Maputo\u201d, who in exchange for buying the rubies would supply the equipment. \u201c\u2019You can carry on using our equipment to dig, then wash and sell the rubies to us (Mustang)\u2019\u201d. The washing was done in Megaruma River. \u201cMustang paid to open the road, is operating here and the local administrator doesn\u2019t know.\u201d Mustang said that later they will employ the prospectors. \u201cMany white men are trying to get this mine. The Mustang men come from Montepuez\u201d, and the community leader was told to keep his mouth shut and not inform the Chiure authorities, said the interviewed.<\/p>\n<p>According to Fernando Jange, the Cabo Delgado Energy and Minerals Direction\u2019s inspector-chief, the mining law prescribes that any licensed company in a prospection and survey phase, in this case of precious minerals, can sell them as long as subjected to taxes. After Mustang got its license, they did their first auction in Mauritius, but it didn\u2019t go well. \u201cI think that the person in charge of the auction didn\u2019t select properly, gathering scrap minerals. So they only got at the time, if I remember well, about 600 or 700 thousand USD,\u201d Said Jange.<\/p>\n<p><strong>But not all friendships were betrayed <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The company and the State share the same interest, which is to minimize the illegal mining and smuggling by those not licensed for precious stones in Montepuez area. For the government, it means to protect their financial revenue and earning in foreign currency; for the companies it is a matter of protecting their growing profits. The previous \u201craids\u201d, ejection of \u201cgarimpeiros\u201d, foreigners and the communities that were transferred from their land intended to accommodate multinationals and important elements of the Mozambican politics, the\u00a0 usual ones and some new .<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rubies and other mineral are \u201c all ours\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Faberg\u00e9-Gemfields, Fura Gems Inc, Mustang ( New Energy since mid-2018), Regius Resources, Gem Rocks, SRL Mining Limitada Mozambican generals, ministers are the main beneficiaries and soon\u00a0 also Gemfields and Mwitiri, will launch a new partnership in gold mining company- Nairoto Resort<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>And has\u00a0 FURA stated in a right-to-reply letter,\u00a0 \u201cMr. Shetty joined Fura in January 2017 as its President and Chief Executive Officer. Prior to joining Fura, Mr. Shetty was the group Chief Operating Officer and a board member of Gemfields Plc.\u201d Also, \u201cFura has no past or current ownership interest in New Energy.\u201d And adds that\u00a0 \u201cThe only relationship between the two companies relates to an acquisition agreement entered into by Fura with New Energy, first publicly announced in July 2018, in which Fura agreed to acquire certain of New Energy&#8217;s ruby assets in Mozambique (the &#8220;Transaction&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p>The new mining legislation and its respective approved and already in use directive in the decentralization framework, as well as the Mines National Institute\u2019s constitution revision to include all acting areas and give priority to nationals as the first benefitting as the Inspector Fernando Jange says,\u00a0 \u201c it must start at the community where most of the minerals are; the community must feel they are the owners and an integral part of the project, otherwise if the company works there without involving the community, the project might fail.\u201d\u00a0 This is not achieved yet.<\/p>\n<p>The ghosts of yesterday continue to be the same today. From January to February of the current year, the war for the ruby with the so-called \u2018garimpeiros\u2019 from the communities\u00a0 continues. Death by landslides, shootings, injured workers by the garimpeiros, a burned mining vehicle&#8230; <strong>Maningue Nice<\/strong>, MRM\u2019s headquarters, was the epicentre. According to some <strong>garimpeiros,<\/strong> \u201cOur government wants us to steal. There in Muapeia\u2019s mine, Namahaka, was a place where we worked and didn\u2019t think of other things. If we have to sit, with nothing to do, we will have to go and steal in our neighbour\u2019s house. Here the stones are not bigger than there. We are here because the white took the place there. We ran away from there (from MRM\/Gemfields concession).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow here also, in Mahate, they know we are extracting stones. They say there are associations, but they come with AKM guns, scare the population and the population goes out, even knowing that we all depend on that place. Another one is coming and occupying and we don\u2019t have the stone as here, it comes out with colour but inside; it has problems , doesn\u2019t have quality. Today the market is also difficult. The stone\u2019s price is lowering; it depends on the buyers. They (police) grabs you, mistreats you, and takes you to jail; so things didn\u2019t change for us,\u00a0 it got worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For example: &#8211; \u201cHere we can work freely, but when the white realized there was stone, he came to occupy. At night he shoots uncontrollably. Is it a gun? We don\u2019t know! Bullet is bullet; if shot aimlessly it might hit children that are there. It is Mustang (NEW ENERGY)\u00a0 that is mining there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStill\u00a0 violence, bullets, people being spanked; that doesn\u2019t stop; last week there were persecutions inside Montepuez Rubi Mining\u2019s area and we could hear bullets soaring. We just don\u2019t see people being shot that end up in hospital anymore. ,\u00a0 said members of community\u00a0 associations.<\/p>\n<p>This fact was recognized by Jange: &#8211; We, as provincial direction, have been advising the companies that the best way to start is to look after the community. A concrete example of this is Mahera, here in Ancuabe. In one of the areas was LPP, but the association organized itself \u2013 a freedom-fighters association \u2013 that did a joint-venture with another company. It is not easy, but we try to minimize the situation.<\/p>\n<p>In Manica Province, according to a local television, some associations have already got mining certificates, which offers them some hope and makes them abandon the illegal mining to create big companies. Just not in Cabo Delgado.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The problem extends to the associations\u2019\u00a0 community, which have lost their fields in favour of Montepuez Ruby Mining\u2019s concession. But MRM says\u00a0 \u201cThis information is inaccurate. Compensation was paid to farmers based on an elaborate land survey and a consultation process that involved all stakeholders, including the communities involved and the state authorities following the laws of Mozambique.\u201d\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In fact, the local association, and community members confirm that there were compensations; each of the farmers got a 9 to 12 thousand Meticais (USD 143-200) payment for their 1 to 4 ha of land. However, \u201cThat amount was useless,\u201d and no other replacing farming areas were given to the community people \u201cIn 2019, the company said they would grant a substituting area for the farms of Namanhumbiri centre (Sede) but during the 2020 agriculture pre-campaign the company did not want to comment on this issue,\u201d said the local association.<\/p>\n<p>Our investigative report did request from MRM the \u201celaborate land survey,\u201d but the company did not send it.<\/p>\n<p>Namanhumbir, in Montepuez, has two community associations one called\u00a0\u00a0 \u20184th of October\u2019 and the\u00a0 other \u2018Armando Guebuza\u2019, with about 350 members each. According to them, a concession was granted, \u201cdemarcated and designated,\u201d to have access to a mining process in a joint-venture project with Gems Rock mining company . Both\u00a0 associations got 250 ha\u00a0 each, while Gems had 750ha, . \u201cThey\u00a0 implemented mining\u00a0 camps in Nacoja and now here in Namahumbir &#8211; Namaka\u00a0 it is still to be implemented.\u201d While each association has 30% shares in the company, Gems Rock detains 40% \u2013 and since the last month of January to now the community association is still waiting. , the association mentioned.<\/p>\n<p>They added that, \u201cAt \u2018first the government said they could give 500 hectares for each association, but now we do have 250 each.. I think the government manipulated.\u201d But Fura says: \u201cIn accordance with the share purchase agreement dated February 4, 2020 entered into by a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company and GemRock Company Ltd. (\u201cGemRock\u201d), as amended, (the \u201cShare Purchase Agreement\u201d) Fura paid GemRock US$2.1 million upon completion of the acquisition. Please see the Company\u2019s press release dated February 10, 2020 for more information about the transactions contemplated in the Share Purchase Agreement (the \u201cAcquisition\u201d).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Corporative social responsibility<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The occidental multinationals are frequently blamed for the lack of Corporative Social Responsibility . In our previous investigation, as well as in this one, it is difficult to assign culpability to only\u00a0 one side, when the country\u2019s leaders abuse their own citizens.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMontepuez Ruby Mining (MRM), is the only one contributing with the production tax.\u201d,\u00a0\u00a0 150 houses for the resettlement are still under construction, ,\u00a0 the company built some school rooms, bore holes, health post, and paid compensation. However there was\u00a0\u00a0 no prosecution for those involved on the human right abuses ( deaths, mutilations), all these years \u201c Gemfields agreed, on a no-admission-of-liability basis the settlement of all claims brought by the English firm Leigh Day on behalf of individuals living in the vicinity of MRM\u2019s mining concession in the North Mozambique \u2026 Gemfields is also cognisant of the fact that, had it prevailed at trial (which it full expected to do), not of its own, likely very substantial, legal costs would have been recoverable from the claimants or from Leigh Day.<\/p>\n<p>When we went to the\u00a0 Mustang (New Energy) concession\u00a0 , we spoke to people from 3 communities that told us nothing had been built. \u201cThey didn\u2019t even talk to us. They came once years ago.\u201d The only existing school room is a rudimentary room built decades ago.<\/p>\n<p>The money company Mustang \u2013 New Energy did not reply to our questions<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; By:Est\u00e1cio Valoi Namanhumbir \u2013 Montepuez, northeast of Mozambique, in Cabo Delgado Province, is where for the first time a deposit of rubies was discovered, later considered the biggest in the world. An area of considerable richness and royalties, the 33.,600 ha ruby mining concession is now currently owned 40% by the mining company Montepuez [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[273],"tags":[266],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Luis Nhachote","author_link":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/author\/luis-nhachote\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/category\/direitos-humanos\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Direitos Humanos<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"&nbsp; By:Est\u00e1cio Valoi Namanhumbir \u2013 Montepuez, northeast of Mozambique, in Cabo Delgado Province, is where for the first time a deposit of rubies was discovered, later considered the biggest in the world. An area of considerable richness and royalties, the 33.,600 ha ruby mining concession is now currently owned 40% by the mining company Montepuez&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2392"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2395,"href":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392\/revisions\/2395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}