Gemfields Posts Record Price Per Carat at Nov Emerald Auction

(IDEX Online) – Colored gemstones miner Gemfields achieved a new record price per carat at its emerald auction held in Lusaka, Zambia, which ended yesterday.

The average price of predominantly higher quality rough emeralds from its Kagem mine hit $65.89 per carat, while auction revenues of $34.9 million were the second highest achieved at any higher quality auction, the miner said.

Of the 589,000 carats offered for sale, 530,000 carats, or 88.6 percent of the total, were snapped up.

Gemfields said the number of companies placing bids at the auction was 34, the same as at the February auction in Lusaka.

The average number of bids per lot was 12 compared with 13 in February, but the number of lots sold rose to 16 of 17 offered from 15 of 17 offered in February.

The percentage of lots sold by weight value rose to 89 percent from 86 percent in February.

Gemfields' next auction will take place in Singapore in December 2014 and will comprise rough rubies from the Montepuez ruby deposit in Mozambique.

"Gemfields is delighted to see the continued enthusiasm for colored gemstones so clearly reflected in our latest auction results. We've set another record for per carat prices as is evidenced by the 11 percent increase achieved versus our last higher quality auction, and have now completed six successful auctions in Zambia, all during the last 20 months," said Gemfields CEO Ian Harebottle.

"We will continue to seek a wider client base internationally, including among our new audience of rough ruby buying clients, and look forward to our ruby auction in Singapore next month which we hope will deliver a similarly pleasing outcome," he added.