Greenland Ruby Update: Interview With Niels Madsen, Founder of the 16th August Union

Introduction:

We now return to Greenland, to learn of the latest event from Niels Madsen, who continues to struggle to maintain right to collect rubies.

After the home rule government came into power last June 21st, there was some optimism that small scale mining might be supported in Greenland. Fair trade jewelry activist and staff writer, Greg Valerio, attended early meetings between the 16th August Union and Greenland’s Bureau of Mining and Petroleum (BMP) reported the change with some optimism, and a “spirit of good faith.” Now, as Madsen states, Greenland will have to continue to struggle to maintain even minimal rights, stating:

“The way I see it, the self rule government is taking ALL rights from the indigenous population.”

This interview was done via several email exchanges in Dec. 2009

~ Marc Choyt, Publisher

MC: Earlier this month, Greenland’s home rule government met to determine laws governing small scale ruby mining. What was the outcome?

NM: here’s a quote of the remarks for the law translated by Google;

“With Greenland self governing acquisition of subject matter, is no longer necessary to have special rules concerning the indigenous population access to the collection and use of mineral resources. It is the Greenland Self Government, which has a right to possess and exploit mineral resources with further in Greenland. The purpose of the acquisition of mining area is that the entire population of Greenland as far as possible should benefit from the activities carried out under the regulation of the area”

MC: How does that translate into practice for your ruby mining?

NM: We are no longer allowed to hammer and chisel. We are only allowed to collect loose material. I am not 100% sure what that means. But the way I understand it is that, if anyone wishing to make a product to sell, even for the smallest amount, or maybe even an inherited piece of jewelry, needs a small scale license. This applies even for already collected material.

This is to ensure the society’s part (tax) of the income, but the strange part is, that a license holder gets a deduction in tax, like the small fisher’s and hunters get, on 60% of the first 400.000 DKK. That’s 240.000 standard tax free. No matter what your expenses have been.

But the main issue, for the public, is the “home taking” of the minerals sector in full. And the main focus is on the income from the mineral industry.

MC: This net effect will be to increase the tax revenues for Greenland?

NM: It might be a case of “the emperor’s new clothes”. What I mean by that is that Denmark has been subsidizing Greenland. Now, the income from mineral and oil exploitation will be taken as a tax first from the subsidy on 3.5 billion DKK. So Denmark will still be the winner financially, until we sell oil and make the billions…

MC: Before this new law, Article 32 of your constitution guaranteed that Inuits could collect and sell the rocks. Does this new laws support Article 32?

NM: The local Greenlanders previously were guaranteed the right to collect traditionally, privately and non-industrially, in any area where there wasn’t any an active mine with exploitation license.

Now they cannot. The way I see it, the self rule government is taking ALL rights from the indigenous population! The self government will have to approve every single individual who wishes to sell a rock!

It was a basic right we had, since we own the land collectively and cannot buy a piece of land, we own it together and can thereby use it, in amounts we could hand-mine and carry. Easy to understand and easy to control. Kids knew it.

MC: How did this happen in the new political climate? It was supposed to be different after home rule. But it seems that your adversaries, the Bureau of Mining and Petrolium, have the upper hand with the new government. Have the activities of the BMP in context to small scale mining changed since the home rule government took over Greenland?

NM: It’s still the same leadership in BMP, that gave us the problems, that made us want to organize and create the 16th August Union. It seems that they, the BMP, are the bottleneck and only filter to the politicians and the public. I think they refer to us as criminals that want a quick profit.

MC: Your Constitutional Article 32, which guaranteed the rights of Inuit to collect and sell rubies is now gone?

NM: Article 45 (§45) is the new article 32 (§32). It says that we are allowed to pickup (only) loose material, in a non-commercial manner which is not clearly defined. Any rock we like, even diamond and ruby, we can gather, but only if we have no commercial interest. If we wish to sell the smallest amount we’ll have to apply for small scale license, even before we carve or cut a rock collected earlier!

I don’t see it as any benefit for anyone else than the “approved friend of Bureau of Mining and Petroleum,” the license holder.

MC: What about rocks that you already own?

NM: To start, we’ll need small scale license to sell old inheritance, the stones that we collected in the past. These will be taxed. With that license there is a deduction on 60% of the first 400.000 DKK ($79,175). That is 240.000 ($47,500) tax free for the first 400.000DKK. It’s the same deal as the small fisher and hunters.

They also tell us that we can sell low value rocks without a license. I’m not sure what they refer to when they talk about “low-value vs. high-value.” They used to make the same distinction when they told us we could collect semi precious gems vs. precious gems. This argument continues to show that the BMP does not understand very much about the gem stone sector. We might be able to sell old carvings and old jewelry, made before 2010, but maybe not.

MC: What size area can you mine in under the new license?

NM: 5 areas of one square KM.

MC: How does the new law impact True North Gems and their claims?

NM: Before, there was only exclusivity in exploitation areas, but in the new law, TNG will be able to sue every ruby collector in the 850 square km. area.

MC: So essentially, as you understand it, the government has given away the best rights to a massive area is to this one company? This seems quite contradictory to the statement translated above.

NM: Yes, that’s right. In Greenland, we can import rocks from Burma Ruby with no problem, but we’ll be criminals if we cut a Greenlandic rock and make bread.

MC: If this monopoly over this large region holds, what is the Union going to do?

NM: I’m not sure what we can do. So far, our efforts seem to have backfired. There is some kind of lack of understanding between the 16th August Union and the government. They think we want to collect free from taxation. That’s not true. We want to pay taxes—the more, the better.

The civil servant’s in our administration (BMP) is “wagging the dog.”

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