New York – Greenland Ruby has suspended operations at its Aappaluttoq ruby and pink sapphire mine because it wasn’t producing enough gemstones.
GemGuide, which first broke the news to the industry, published a story in August quoting Greenland Ruby’s chief commercial officer Hayley Henning as saying that production at the site hadn’t met expectations over the past year or so.
Michele Billam, the company’s chief sales and merchandising officer, told JCK last week that mining operations had been suspended for care and maintenance since January.
Henning referred all questions about the reports to Greenland Ruby CEO Arnt Erick Rørnes, who did not respond to an email request for comment by press time.
Greenland’s Sermitsiaq newspaper reported last month that the mine has debts of 509 million Danish kroner, or about $73 million at current exchange rates.
The company has closed offices and laid off staff.
The mine laid off 30 employees at the beginning of the year and later let go of the remaining seven, according to Sermitsiaq.
In a 2017 National Jeweler interview with Henning, she said the life of the Aappaluttoq mine is expected to be about nine years.
She also said exploration had identified two other potential sites for ruby mining, but at the time the company was “not really there yet” in terms of moving forward with the sites.
Billam told JCK that exploratory mining had begun at two sites where the company has licences.
In addition to exploration, there is still rough material to be processed and ruby stocks are still held in Thailand, but “sales have been very low”, according to Billam.
Greenland Ruby has been producing rubies, as well as pink sapphires, at the Aappaluttoq ruby mine in the southwest of Greenland since 2017. It’s the country’s first corundum mine.
The area was originally mined by True North Gems, but after the company announced voluntary bankruptcy in September 2016, the mining licence for the Aappaluttoq ruby mine was awarded to LNS Greenland, an investor in the project.
Its sister company, Greenland Ruby A/S, was established in October 2016 to take over the exploration licence and handle the promotion and sale of the mine’s output.
A 2019 GemGuide article by Stuart M. Robertson, GIA GG, said Greenland Ruby’s acquisition of the necessary permits to export and market gemstones has allowed commercial quantities of these rubies and sapphires to enter the international gem trade.
He said a combination of the stones’ affordable price point, starting at less than $100 per carat, and their mine-to-market traceability made Greenland Rubies attractive to the market.
In January this year, Greenland Ruby announced the appointment of Rørnes, who previously worked for parent company Leonhard Nislen & Sonner AS (LNS), as its new CEO.
He succeeds Magnus Kibsgaard.
