Record emerald auction at Gemfields
Coloured gemstone specialist Gemfields raked in record revenues of US$43.7 million from its latest emerald auction, reflecting a rebound in market demand for emeralds.
All 35 lots of higher-quality emeralds from the Kagem mine were sold at the auction, held in Thailand from May 15 to June 1, 2023. The event also achieved two other record-breaking milestones: The highest average price of US$165.55 per carat for any Gemfields emerald auction and the highest per-carat price paid for a single auction lot.
This was Gemfields’ 45th auction of Kagem emeralds since 2009, bringing total revenues to US$964 million.
Adrian Banks, Gemfields’ managing director of Product & Sales, said the sale “yielded a positively surprising outcome” as markets were just normalising during a previous auction in November 2022. The latest results pointed to a sharp market rebound that supports the step-change in pricing that the miner reported in 2022, added Banks.
Gemfields owns 75 per cent of the Kagem mine in Zambia while the remaining 25 per cent is held by the Industrial Development Corporation of Zambia.
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