Mozambique Hosts Int’L Fair on Mineral, Gems

Mozambique hosts int’l fair on mineral, gems

MAPUTO, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) — A total of 33 exhibitors have registered to participate in Mozambique’s first International Fairof Minerals and Gemstones, which opened on Thursday in Maputo.

The fair is to facilitate contact between the national exhibitors and foreign buyers.

However, when the fair opened most of the exhibitors had not yet arrived, and were still on their way to the capital.

Several potential buyers were already in Maputo to attend the fair, which will close on Sunday.

Luis Costa Junior, director of the National Museum of Geology, which organized the event, said that Mozambique produces high- quality gems, but this potential is not yet being fully exploited.

“We have some of the best quoted gemstones in the world,” said Costa Junior.

“With this fair, we want Mozambican producers to learn. We wantthem to go to the best fairs in the world.”

Gems can be mined in almost all Mozambican provinces. But so far most of the stones are extracted using artisanal methods — and illegally.

Abdul Remane, head of the small-scale mining department, in theMinistry of Mineral Resources, estimates that 60,000 to 70,000 people mine gems illegally, particularly in the central and northern provinces.

The activity is illegal, but the government has decided that instead of cracking down on tens of thousands of miners, it will try to control the marketing of the gems.

It has issued marketing licences to buyers who purchase the gems directly from the miners.

Thus over 1,000 traders now have licences to buy and sell gemstones.

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