Gemfields Reaches Settlement Over Mozambique Rights Abuse Case

MAPUTO (Capital Markets in Africa)  – Gemfields Group Ltd., the owner of colored gemstone mines and maker of Faberge jewelry, has agreed to a 5.8 million pound ($7.6 million) settlement with a group of Mozambicans who said they suffered rights abuses around the company’s ruby mine in the north of the country.

London-based law company Leigh Day last year brought a claim on behalf of the 273 people who lived near the Montepuez Ruby Mining Lda operations. Gemfields didn’t admit liability in the settlement, the company said in an emailed statement Tuesday.

“Given a complex array of considerations and the likely protracted nature of the mooted litigation, we believe today’s settlement best balances the interests and futures of the assorted stakeholders,” Gemfields Chief Executive Officer Sean Gilbertson said in the statement. “Vitally, we wish to ensure that we are regarded as trusted and transparent partners to members of our local communities, rather than legal adversaries.”

Since the red gemstones were first discovered there a decade ago, Montepuez has seen an influx of fortune seekers from around the country and as far afield as Thailand. The area has the world’s biggest ruby deposits and accounts for as much as 80 percent of production, according to some estimates. Gemfields encountered informal miners at the site when it bought the company in 2012, and there were numerous clashes between them and police and mine security.

Source: Bloomberg Business News