The London-based mining company Gemfields on Tuesday announced that last week’s auction in Singapore of rough rubies from the ruby mine in the northern Mozambican district of Montepuez raised 50 million US dollars.
Of the 90 parcels of rubies available at the auction, 84 were sold – fetching an average price of 51.99 dollars per carat. This was less than raised during the previous auction, in December 2018, which raised 55.3 million dollars with an average price of just over 84 dollars per carat.
This was the twelfth auction of rubies from Montepuez Ruby Mining Ltd (MRM) held since June 2014. In total, they have generated 512.6 million dollars.
According to Adrian Banks, Gemfields’ Managing Director of Product and Sales, “each of these dollars is repatriated to MRM in Mozambique where MRM has been the largest taxpayer in Cabo Delgado province from 2014 through 2017”. He stressed that “approximately 23 cents of every dollar of MRM’s revenue is paid to the government in the form of corporation tax and mineral production royalties”.
Gemfields holds 75 per cent of the shares in MRM. The remaining 25 per cent are owned by the Mozambican company Mwiriti.
- You may read the full Gemfields press release HERE.
Source: AIM via Club of Mozambique