John Saul Ruby Mine

Life at the mine.

Mining at John Saul depends on more than the work in the pit. Security, medical facilities, transport and hand sorting all support the work of the mine.

01 The gate

Security at John Saul.

Uniformed security officers and dog handlers are based on site. The security block stands beside a marked assembly point.

Access is through the Kenya Wildlife Service gate at Kasigau. Within the mine, material is weighed and accounted for before sealed parcels are sent to Nairobi.

Nine uniformed security officers and three guard dogs standing in front of a red single-storey building with an assembly point sign.
Security detail and guard dogsAssembly point

02 The clinic

The site clinic.

The mine has a clinic in a single-storey building. Inside are a wheeled stretcher, a hand basin, clinical waste bins and a cupboard for medical supplies.

The supplies include dressings, bandages, gloves, sterile syringes, saline, antiseptic and medicines.

A single-storey building painted terracotta with a corrugated iron roof, a covered veranda and a CLINIC sign, with a tree in front.
Clinic buildingJohn Saul
A wheeled ambulance stretcher with a red mattress and yellow frame, standing in a room with a hand basin and clinical waste bins.
Wheeled stretcherRKL clinic
A wooden cupboard marked RKL CLINIC, its shelf stacked with boxes of dressings, gloves, syringes, saline and antiseptic.
Clinic suppliesRKL clinic

03 Getting there

Travel and transport.

Rockland operates a staff bus for road transport. For air access, the mine uses an airstrip shared with the Kenya Wildlife Service.

Road
About 12 hours from Nairobi, 5 hours from Mombasa
Air
About an hour from Nairobi
A yellow Isuzu bus lettered Rockland Kenya Limited in black type along its side, with a painted rainbow stripe, parked on a dirt yard beside a shelter.
Staff busRockland Kenya Limited

04 Sorting floor

Sorting the rough.

Material brought up from the pit contains gravel, waste rock and rough ruby. It is laid out in trays and checked by hand at long wooden tables.

The selected ruby is weighed, washed, graded and grouped by size. Finished parcels are then sealed for transport to the Nairobi head office.

Sorters in tan overalls at long wooden tables in a whitewashed room, one of them wearing an overall printed ROCKLAND KENYA LIMITED, with trays of screened gravel.
Sorting tablesJohn Saul
The Rockland story

The discovery, the lease, the geology and the mining method.