The Battle For Greenland's Rubies {Luxist}

Oct 3rd 2008 4:00PM 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.