The Battle of The Greenland Ruby

The Battle of Greenland Ruby
By: Ms. Tida Ravn Nuuk, Greenland

This article by Tida Ravn published in 2008 kicked off a media storm in Greenland. It gives a first hand account of the origins of the 16th August Union, the Inuit Group struggling to retain their rights to collect, polish and sell the rubies that are on their ancestral land.
~ Marc Choyt, Publisher, fairjewelry.org.

In the summer month of August 2007, five local gemstone enthusiasts on Greenland were forced to abandon their ruby prospecting camp in the field, by the Greenland Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum (BMP) and the Greenland Police. The authorities denied the local people permission to continue practicing their historical and legally protected rights of collecting the stones out in nature as their ancestors have done through generations, extending back on record for at least two centuries.

“We have our legal and traditional rights to collect the stones, at places that are not occupied by others”, says Niels Eske Madsen, one of the detained enthutiasts.

Now half a year after the unfortunate episode at a place called “Aappaluttoq”, Mr. Madsen has been offered a lopsided deal by the BMP. He will be released from the authorities’ charges and cleared as a suspected ruby-robber, as will the other local collectors and ruby-enthutiasts, providing he accepts the government’s new demands.

The year 2008 begins with a new strategy by the BMP, responsible and administrates the law, on behalf of the local government: All Greenland stone-collectors will now have to deal with a new set of restrictive rules that prohibit precius stone collecting, if they want to continue their prospecting.

What a Wonderful Stone

The burning point, is a place called Aappaluttoq, in the language of the local Inuit people, and there in that red place the underground is full of fine natural ruby.

Just few hours south by boat from the capital of Nuuk, a few hundred people make their living harvesting the ressources nature provides in the settlement named Qeqertarsuatsiaat, the closest village to Aappaluttoq.

People living here are native to this area with a deep knowledge of the land. Their tradition of collecting gemstones started generations ago. The proof today is to be seen in the abundant collections of ruby found in every home in the settlement. For generations, the locals’ rights as inhabitants to collect, carve and sell stone products from the resources given to them by nature, are all written in the rules of the Law on Minerals and also in Law on Greenland Home Rule.

For centuries family members of Inuit, besides being hunters and fishermen, have had the traditional rights to collect whatever is needed for their housing and living, and this tradition is still an important part of life today all along the coast, around the areas and in the fields, following the seasons, where the rocks and the land are free of snow and ice.

This specific right to get supplies from nature was lately declared sacrosanct by the members of the United Nations in order to protect indigenous peoples in developing countries so as to guarantee their rights to improve self determination, based on the resources in their homelands.

One Day Never To Forget

This on-going battle about the rubies took its start some few years ago, when a Canadian mining company, True North Gems, with abundant help from the locals, began looking for a good quality of the precious red gemstone known as ruby.

“We just couldn’t believe our own eyes. This lucky moment of great happiness was more than we ever dared to dream about, and everybody jumped in the lake, screaming out, euphoric for this ruby, so big and so beautiful, as never seen”, says Thue Noahsen.

He was the lucky one who found a large and very fine ruby on 16 August 2005. Experts later pronounced the worth as approximately 2.5 million Danish kroner, about US$500,000. This was but one stone in the first excavated 100 kilogram of raw rock, and the mining company had permission to explore which allowed for tons of rock to be collected in the area.

Thue Noahsen used to make his living by fishing and hunting, like so many others in the settlement of Qeqertarsuatsiaat. After learning about the ruby he is no longer fishing or hunting; his thoughts are on the rubies, as he says;
“Once you have found a beautiful ruby, you just can’t stop thinking of it. It is just like a love affair. Looking at this gemstone, goes directly to your heart”, Thue says.

Learn The Ruby

In the years following the discovery of the fine ruby, True North Gems continued exploring for the ruby. Under government regulations, the Canadian company gets the access to the land and a monopoly to consolidate a future trade. Some of the locals were employed by True North, which at first arranged training courses for the villagers, because ruby was perceived as an opportunity for everybody. In the village, there was enthusiasm for a ruby trade and the people wanted to start a business with these stones to realize their enormous potential.

Even pupils and teachers from the childrens’ school and carvers in the settlement of Qeqertarsuatsiaat got pieces of stone, so they could grow their knowledge of the ruby.

All these things happened when the exploration was first expanding, from season to season. Initially, both Canadians and locals worked together, side by side, and the villagers were pleased by the mining company and the local authority. All of the people’s dreams about ruby carving and a ruby trade seemed possible to realize, particularly with so many resources of so many gem stones being discovered nearby.

That was the mood – before the changes, between “then” and “now.”

Something very important and detrimental happened in the next year, defining the seasons between “then and now”

The Battle for Aappaluttoq on 16 August 2007.

Though the most obvious consequence is that locals from now on are denied the right to go to Aappaluttoq and collect gemstones, as they like to do, the real truth about why things went against the locals in favor of the Canadian company, True North Gems, is still unknown to the general public.

Locals speculate that maybe the quality and the amount of the rubies found is too valuable – for others than the Canadians. And maybe the locals were too clever and learned too much about the gemstone trade …

Locals Demand Answers

After several seasons employed at True North, like many of the other locals, Thue Noahsen is now out of business, disillusioned and accused by the government of the intent to export rubies, even though he had written permission to export from the BMP. His collection of stones was confiscated by the authorities despite his possession of a valid export permit. He is still wondering: “What happened and why?” More answers are needed.

Laws and Lawbreakers

Law of the Greenland Homerule Parliament, § 8 says: “The people have as inhabitants the principal rights to all ressources in the underground…”

Also § 32 in the Law on Minerals and Petroleum in Greenland is just and cannot be misunderstod. It gives people in Greenland, known locally as Kalaallit Nunaat (in Greenlandic means Land of the People), a protection under law on Minerals and Petroleum to “collect, carve and sell products picked up and collected in nature.”

But

-Locals: “Don’t get commercial !!!”

Law on Minerals and Petroleum says in § 32, that inhabitants are allowed to collect whatever is useful as a potential income and in support for the family’s daily life, without special permission. Recently, the BMP has unilaterally interpreted the laws to mean trade is permitted as long as the trade run by a local doesn’t get commercial ! That interpretation is being challenged in court by the local people.
BMP’s unilateral interpretation seems to be the root of misunderstanding. BMP’s new regulations do not clear up the fact about when it is legal to sell handmade products, and when the trade becomes “commercial”.

Though the law also advises how locals can get a permission for the exportation of rough stones, as was practiced for many years by members of Grønlands Stenklub, the national stone club, the authorities at Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum (BMP) gave themselves the time needed to design new criteria required to be fulfilled by all locals seeking permission to trade outside of Greenland, in order to get access to the international market. Under BMP’s new conditions, it is now nearly impossible to get a permission for international trade, if you are local, even for the members in the Greenland Stoneclub.

Uncovered Values

Today, rapid global climate change is a new thread to weave for Inuit, the arctic people of the land. International business is increasingly focused on many still untouched resources and minerals that have been reported and surveyed in Greenland. This new land looks more and more like the headquarters of melting ice and snow, but the opportunity for the people to take part in this coming Klondike is running out like the melting ice and snow.

You can read the story about how a few locals through their native stone collecting activities, were paralyzed and accused of being criminal suspects, as illegal stone collectors intent on commercial proposes, going right against what they themselves believed were their constitutional rights. They feel they were acting with the true understanding of the laws of Greenland and the traditions of Kalaallit Nunaat.

The locals detained by the BMP and the police at the request of True North Gems have now been released after the official investigation, with no further charges, but some new demands. The local prospectors feel they have been criminalized by the authorities around rubies, and with that feeling it is more than difficult to even think about any further ruby trade. They feel their rights have been violated.

In this specific case it’s a battle over the ruby – a fine gemstone situated right on earth to pick up, and in a huge area there is plenty of it! Enough to make a billion dollar based business – and with a considerable help from the authorities, the Canadian company won first round against the rights of the people in the battle of this certain ruby at Aappaluttoq, just south of Nuuk.

The race for ruby in Aappaluttoq has just begun and the Canadians are leading with free access and the power to control every gemstone taken in the district. Soon they will apply for their license of exploitation for what maybe one of the most valuable gemstones in the world.
But all of the locals involved in the battle over ruby-prospecting last summer, are left outside the loop and their possibilities to take part in the rubies in this area, are forever gone.

Who is Violated

The losers in this case are once again as history tells, stone collectors, carvers, artists and many other kinds of enthusiasts along with their ability to make a living and trade in the sector.

All rights to the rubies in a certain area with big potential, are now in the hands of the Canadians, and the area is forbidden land for the locals, despite provisions otherwise in the laws of Greenland.

The locals are denied their rights to make profit from the valuable stone, though all of the rules in relevant national and international law allows access to the land for inhabitants of an indigenous country, such as Greenland.

The specific law on Minerals and Petroleum in Greenland § 32, says that locals have their historical and traditional rights to explore, collect and make sales on stone and other resources, that are not hydro or petrol. The BMP interprets the original debate over the law to imply that commercial activity is prohibited. How nice to know that you have the right to sell – but can’t make it commercial !?!? It seems to be a very mysterious rule where there are no answers on the limits, which tells you when you get commercial, whether you do it with limited income.

Them and Us

For some reason the national authorities at the Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum (BMP) preferred to protect an international company, True North Gems, over the rights of the native people. True North has a license to explore, but not to exploit, the Greenland ruby.

Under law and culture, the Inuit feel they have the right to prospect, work and sell the Greenland ruby any time. The BMP, on the one hand was conducting investigations into the activities among the local prospectors so as to render them artificially illegal through proclamation, and on the other hand was contriving a brand new list of regulations comprising an 8 page edition with demands for information to deliver and questions to answer, before a native Greenlander can get a permission to export. Under BMP’s new rules, obtaining the export permit is impossible.

Anybody who has visited Greenland will remember the long-standing local trade of beautiful art and handcrafts made by Inuit, with valuable ruby gems among the finest products made in stones. And this long tradition also includes the guiding principle that tourists can buy the products and take them out of the country without special permission for their purchases, including “one handful” of rough stones. That rule also includes a single stone the size of a handful, and authorities never before saw that as a problem.

After the Battle of Aappaluttoq last summer, a lot of things changed with the effect that strengthens security control at the airport now with tourists and locals being searched for ruby. Still nothing has been resolved under court challenge to this government action, though politicians in the parliament questioned the case. At this time local police and the BMP were at research on the case of the five locals, and couldn’t give an answer with details.

The discussion in the public shows, with no surprise, that the people want to take part in this new Klondike of minerals and stones. Only the national politicians are hesitating at this point. Why?

Also, the international gemstone society reacted to the summer battle with responses to the administration of the BMP. The International Coloured Stone Association (ICA) formally expressed their concerns in writing about the native prospecting rights on behalf of the locals in the situation at Aappaluttoq. No authority ever responded to those concerns.

Politics

Both, Kim Kielsen, (S) member of the Greenland Homerule government and Jørn Skov Nielsen, Director at BMP (Bureau on Minerals and Petroleum) hold that locals who pretend to have commercial plans without having a special permission can be arrested, because that kind of activity among locals are not allowed in order to protect international interests in the area. Both men refuse to comment on the case at this time regarding the specific case, between the authorities and the five locals.

“But of course, the Law on Minerals and Petroleum, can be updated, so inhabitants in Greenland, can have an opportunity to take part in the new stone trade”, Kim Kielsen says to the public at KNR, the national television and radio station. He also agrees in the fact that: “… this Law on Minerals and Petroleum in Greenland, still seems to keep people of the land back in time where Greenland was a colony of Denmark.”

“A future model for organizing the local ruby trade, could be based on the well-known Small Scale Mining Association”, says Mr. Kielsen, and ends;

“It all depends on the final negotiations about a new agreement with the state of Denmark, about Self governance and in specific, what deal will be the result when it comes to the economy based on minerals , oil and gas, and of course, valuable gemstones, and what the underground of Greenland has plenty of.”

Due to the reason that Greenland in fact is a frontier-land, a growing number of international companies,without paying any royalties, get permission to explore followed by exploitation, on all known and still unknown minerals and stones in the underground on the world’s biggest island, Greenland.

Questions

In this case it is important to realize a few things about the real day-to-day life in the high arctic, where the international community has great access within exploitation and exploration on all kinds of minerals and valuable stones like, gold, diamond, silver and among others also the finest ruby, and the local people have none.

Why do the national authorities give remarkable protection to the Canadian company, True North Gems, when the company only has a limited permission to research rubies in this certain area on the coast of southwest Greenland, and with no rights under exiting law, to commence excavation mining. And what did happen so that True North turned opposite-down their cooperation with the locals?
Many answers are blowing in the wind over Aappaluttoq.

Self Governance

Inuit in Greenland are identified as the indigenous people of the land, and inhabitants in this country which is the largest island on earth. As a home ruled part of the State of Denmark, this former colony is now ruled by a nearly fulfilled self government, headed by democratically elected members of the Parliament in Greenland. Within the next few weeks, the final results are due on the negotiations for optimizing financial and political independence from the narrow economic ties to the state of Denmark. Results will show if the members of the Greenlandic-Danish commission are able to make an economic agreement that will satisfy all involved on the proposed outcome and income regarding minerals and petroleum.

The final report on the new agreement for self governance, has to be approved by the Parliament, most of the members of which suggest any new law for Greenland should be approved by the inhabitant voters.

For the inhabitants of Greenland – one of the most essential rules are the peoples’ rights to be protected and defended by law, and in specific, the Inuits rights to use and be able to have an income for necessary supplies for living, based on natural resources has definitely an importance for the society and families in common, that may not be violated, now or in the future.

But still all five locals – and maybe many others to come, will lean on the evaluation in this specific case from the Ombudsman in Greenland.

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