The Battle For Greenland's Rubies
With rubies from Myanmar/Burma being banned by many Western countries, the hunt has been on for rubies that come from a less politically sensitive area. In the last few years, there has been increasing exploration for rubies in Greenland. Just as Canadian diamonds are sometimes seen as an easy way around the potential harmful associations with some African diamonds, Greenland's rubies seem like a no-conflict solution, one that could benefit both the companies investing and Greenland's people.But as Marc Choyt over at Fair Jewelry points out, that may not be the case. He has written a series of posts that go into great depth on this complex issue. To summarize: for years, Greenland's Inuit people have come across rubies and picked them up on their travels and sometimes sold them but now with big companies such as True North Gems exploring the area for ruby deposits, some Greenlanders feel they are being pushed away from the ruby business. They assert that the rough ruby shown at right, valued at half a million dollars was confiscated from its Inuit owner and that it is just part of a campaign to keep the Greenland people out of the potentially lucrative mining business.
The story of what's happening in Greenland is complicated and Marc's done a very thorough job of looking at both sides. He traces the journey of Neils Madsen, a Greenlander who found himself caught up in the ruby battle simply because he wished to dig for rubies in an area where exploration was taking place. A conflict with people working for True North Gems and the government led to him forming the August 16th Union (the confrontation took place on August 16, 2007), a group whose objective was to secure the rights of all Greenlanders to artisanally mine and sell rubies. Right now Greenlanders are now allowed only to sell semiprecious gems, not precious gems. Madsen has circulated a petition on behalf of the August 16th Union, demanding the rights to have small scale mining and selling of rubies as guaranteed under Article 32. This petition has gathered 2600 signatures, which is four and a half percent of the entire nation of 57,000.
He also interviewed Andrew Lee Smith, Founder and CEO of True North Gems who says he and his company support of small scale mining and selling of rubies by Native Greenlanders as long as it is done within the parameters of the law (and as long as his company has the right to explore and potentially mine rubies in compliance with the laws of Greenland.) He believes that the August 16 Union's main issue is not with True North Gems but with the existing laws of Greenland and that the union is a loud, radical minority.
True North does keep a chain of custody and assurance of source on the stones so that the Greenland rubies aren't mixed with rubies from other places which is what happened initially with Canadian diamonds. Right now the company isn't selling materials since they need the consent of the Greenland government and a mining license (currently they are still in the exploration phase). They are hoping to establish a commercial ruby operation in Greenland and sell the stones as Greenland branded material.
Over at Fair Jewelry you can sign the petition to support the rights of native Greenlanders to mine the stones from their own land.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jon Toop Oct 3rd 2008 4:41PM
Sorry, but Marc Choyt's article DOES NOT provide a well-balanced picture of Greenland's ruby issue, nor does it begin to tell 1/3 of the story. One might well wonder how Madsen, who was apparently a former employee of True North, came across a half million dollar stone so easily, when True North's projects supervised by Mr. William Rohtert, who hired Madsen, came up with far less in spite of far larger scale exploration activities. The fact that Madsen came back to this site to stage a well-planned confrontation (and if you talk to people at the site, they can confirm this), raises the question of what the agenda of Madsen is, who was behind it, and what they stand to gain.
True North has spent considerable money on the local community, doing training on jewelry making and lapidary work, hiring locals, etc. To mine the rubies, they must prove that they are being environmentally responsible, will benefit Greenland and local communities, and in the end they will be taxes on an efficiently scales operation that will benefit ALL Greenlanders.
Apparently some people, including Mr. Madsen, think that these rubies belong to a few. People further down the supply chain, who think that they will make money buying rubies coming from a few connected people like Mr. Madsen, are part of that few. Sorry, but these rubies belong to ALL Greenlanders, and first and foremost, the right to development belongs to the people who have discovered them, invested the money, and proven that they will share the proceeds through tax dollars with all.
Naoko Emi Oct 3rd 2008 9:06PM
I see in Marc Choyt's article that Mr. Madson was accused by the police of ruby smuggling. I had a search on the internet and found that there was an article in the Greenland news about an American being arrested at the airport for ruby smuggling. It was less than two weeks before Mr. Madson's arrest. Maybe that has something to do with why the government was so sensitive about this.
http://www.sikunews.com/art.html?catid=6&artid=3593
When you think of it, Greenland has free medical care, education, and many other benefits. It is not a poor country where people are desparate. How can they pay for all these expensive things if people are avoiding paying taxes on rubies or smuggling rubies? I think it is a lot more ethical to have a small company like True North Gems mine these rubies using local people, and share the tax money with the government, rather than have anyone come in and take what they want. In Columbia, people are routinely killed fighting over emeralds. Having a safe, enclosed mining operation that pays taxes sounds like a far more reasonable and ethical solution. This True North Gems sounds very ethical too.