A truck travels along a mine pit at Gemfields Group Ltd.s ruby mine near Montepuez in Mozambique, on Wednesday, June 13, 2018. Montepuez is home to the worlds biggest known ruby deposit. Photographer: Matthew Hill/Bloomberg via Getty Images "This morning, an attack attributed to insurgent activity has been reported at the neighbouring ruby mine belonging to Gemrock, which lies approximately 12 kilometres (7.46 miles) south-east of the operations... in which Gemfields holds a 75% interest," Gemfields said in a statement.
Mozambique's northern Cabo Delgado province has seen an Islamic State-linked insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives since it broke out in 2017, disrupting multibillion-dollar natural gas and mining projects.
Gemfields said it had started evacuating employees and contractors, but security personnel and Mozambican police would remain on site. Mozambique military were arriving on site, it added.
In July, Gemfields reported an attack about 30 kilometres (19 miles) away from its Montepuez operations, but did not halt operations.
Gemfields' Montepuez ruby mine produced 83,990 carats of premium rubies in 2021 and has generated over $800 million in sales since 2014.
(Reporting by Nelson Banya Editing by Jan Harvey and Mark Potter)