Editor’s Note
This article has been updated to include the final results from Gemfields’ latest ruby auction, which achieved a total of $31.7 million.
London—Gemfields announced that its latest mixed-quality rough ruby auction totaled $31.7 million and included the sale of one of the largest rubies ever recovered from the Montepuez mine in Mozambique.
The auction, composed of six mini auctions, was 87 percent sold by lot and 69 percent sold by weight with an average sale price of $461.48 per carat.
The miner noted that a mini auction held in April, which featured predominantly small-sized gemstones that normally would have been included in the June auction, and some higher-weight, lower-quality lots that did not sell skewed the per-carat average price for the June auction.
Montepuez Ruby Mining Limitada (MRM), which is 75 percent owned by Gemfields and 25 percent by Mozambican partner Mwiriti Limitada, mined the gemstones.
The sale also included rubies from a newer area of Montepuez, including a 36-carat ruby, which achieved a “highly pleasing” sale price, said Adrian Banks, Gemfields’ managing director of product and sales.
Gemfields did not reveal the stone’s sale price or who bought it, but it did note that it is the third-largest ruby in the mine’s history.
