Resurgent Emeralds See Strong Price Rise

Emeralds are currently enjoying a consumer resurgence with initiatives like the “Emeralds for Elephants” resonating with what consumers consider important today.

The initiative has high-profile patrons including the likes of BBC wildlife presenter David Attenborough. It donated a percentage of the sale proceeds from an elephant-themed emerald jewelry collection towards creating safe migration corridors for elephants.

Gemfields itself promotes the fact that as the world’s only organized emerald miner, it guarantees ethical conduct and environmental best practices in its operations. Its efforts have helped Gemfields see a stead rise in the price of its low-end rough. At its March 2010 auction, it sold 22.8 million carats for $7.2 million — a mere $0.31 per carat.

The latest rough auction in the Indian gemstone-processing city of Jaipur, between November 21 and 25, saw 27 companies bidding for a total of 10.8 million carats. Of the total, a million carats remained unsold as bids did not reach the reserve price.

The auction also featured “traded material” — rough from other mining sources that does not carry the ethical and best practice guarantees that Gemfields offers for the rough from its own Kagem mine in Zambia. Sales figures for the “traded material” are not available.

Gemfields says its next auction will be for high-end material and will take place in March 2012. High-end rough is auctioned in London, Singapore and Johannesburg. The last high end auction was in July this year at Singapore and fetched $31.6 million for the 740,000 carats sold. This translates to $42.71 per carat — a staggering 870.7 percent over the $4.4 per carat at the July 2009 auction. It is also a strong 63 percent over the $26.2 per carat at the last auction in Johannesburg in December 2010.