Gemfields commits Montepuez Ruby Mining to IRMA audit

The Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) is pleased to announce that Gemfields has committed Montepuez Ruby Mining (MRM) to third-party independent assessment against the IRMA Standard for Responsible Mining. Majority owned and operated by Gemfields, MRM is located in the Cabo Delgado province of Mozambique. It is the first gem mine to publicly commit to an IRMA independent audit.

KPMG PRI, an IRMA-approved independent audit firm, will be carrying out the assessment, which includes a desk review (stage 1) followed by an onsite audit (stage 2). After the KPMG PRI draft audit report is reviewed by IRMA and Gemfields, the company may release the report or can take up to twelve months to implement corrective actions and be re-assessed. When the assessment is complete, IRMA publishes a final report in which the audit firm assigns an overall IRMA Achievement Level, and explains how and why they scored the operation against each of the 400+ requirements of the IRMA Standard.

Stakeholder Engagement in the Assessment

Interested stakeholders and members of the public can sign up to receive updates about the MRM assessment (e.g., the timing of the stage 2 onsite visit, link to public summary of audit results). The Mines Under Assessment page of IRMA’s website will also provide up-to-date information on all assessments.

Members of the community, public officials, representatives of the workforce, or other organizations are invited to submit comments regarding how the mine site is managing their impacts to the environment including air, water, waste, greenhouse gases, and ecosystems; how the mine supports their workforce; and how the mine interacts with the surrounding community, and how it impacts the community, positively or negatively.

Interested parties may contact the independent audit firm, KPMG PRI, to share comments or to ask to be interviewed as part of the audit process. The audit firm can be reached by email at:

KPMG Performance Registrar Inc.
Kim Swanzey kswanzey@kpmg.ca

Please share this announcement, and feel free to contact KPMG PRI directly to provide names and contact information for other Gemfields stakeholders who may be interested in knowing about and participating in the mine site assessment process.

For more information

• For information on the IRMA mine site assessment process and timeline.
• For information about the Montepuez Ruby Mining (MRM) audit, visit IRMA’s MRM assessment status page.
• If you would like more information on how audits of MRM are conducted against the IRMA standard — contact IRMA’s Director of Assurance: Michelle Smith, audits (at) responsiblemining.net