Mozambique’s ruby mining sector continues to develop, with Australia-domiciled Mustang Resources announcing in late January that it had despatched its first commercial parcel of the precious stones from its project in that country to the US.

This parcel contained 6 221 ct of rubies, of which 75 ct was accounted for by five “special stones” (in the company’s words), including two rare 24 ct rubies, “none of which require treatment”.

Further, the company has fully recommissioned its plant after moving it closer to water sources and to the property’s main ruby deposit, designated the Alpha deposit. Production is now being ramped up to a target of 525 t of ore a day. Monthly production will be around 11 025 t, given 21 working days in the month with one shift a day.

“The initial results following plant relocation suggest we can triple throughput rates,” said company MD Christiaan Jordaan. “At the same time, we have achieved a key milestone for Mustang with the first commercial shipment of rubies recovered through bulk sampling, as well as our highly successful prospecting teams that form part of our local community engagement and employment programme.

This shipment will play a vital role in helping us to place market values on our rubies, as well as growing awareness and understanding of our world-class stones among customers. As a result, we will be better placed to estimate the revenue we can generate from our rapidly growing production profile.“

The company’s operation is the Montepuez Ruby Project, located in the Montepuez Complex, in Cabo Delgado province, in the north of Mozambique. Mustang expects to accrue its first sales revenues during the first half of this year. Currently, it is carrying out auger drilling to map the ruby-containing orebody throughout the project area and to be able to delineate a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource.

Mustang’s Montepuez Ruby Project must not be confused with the nearby Montepuez Ruby Mining (MRM) Limitada. The latter is a Mozambique company that is 75%-owned by UK miner Gemfields and 25% by Mozambique enterprise Mwiriti.

Gemfields held its seventh auction of rubies from MRM in Singapore, from December 12 to December 16, with 39 companies making bids. The auction brought the company $30.4-million, with an average realised price per carat of $27.79. In all, 1 094 406 ct was sold, representing 80% of the offering by weight and 85% by market value (a total of 1 372 145 ct had been offered for sale).

The company’s first auction was held in June 2014 and the aggregate revenues from all seven auctions totalled $225.7-million. All but the third auction were held in Singapore. The third auction was held in Jaipur, India; it recorded the poorest results of all the auctions so far. The first, third, sixth and seventh auctions also included corundum, a by-product of the mining for rubies.

“We are very pleased with the results of Gemfields’ seventh Montepuez ruby auction, despite some of our customers being unable to attend while they adjust to the regional demonetisation policy changes [in India] they’ve experienced over the past few weeks,” said company CEO Ian Harebottle in December.

“The prices achieved at this auction, combined with the high percentage of the value sold, fully support our view of ongoing solid demand for responsibly sourced Mozambique rubies across key markets and categories. The recent prices obtained for fine cut and polished Mozambique rubies by international auction houses further underscore the exciting trajectory for rubies from Mozambique. As always, we thank our customers, our business partners, our host government and give credit to every member of our devoted and hard-working global team.