GEMFIELDS, the emeralds and rubies miner, has reported $68.7 million (R1.24 billion) in revenue from an auction of gems it conducted during the period June 3 to June 18.
Under the company’s mixed quality ruby auctions for the month of June, Gemfields managed to sell rubies worth 217 044 carats, earning $68.7m.
The average realised price of rubies sold by the company under its latest auctions amounted to $316.95 per carat.
The June 2024 auctions have brought the total auctions undertaken by the company since June 2014 to 22 auctions. This has also pushed up the total revenue from gemstone sales since June 2014 to $1.1bn.
“This (June 2024) auction marks the 10th anniversary of Gemfields’ first auction in June 2014 of rubies from the Montepuez Ruby Mine in Mozambique,” said Gemfields managing director Adrian Banks.
“We are pleased to announce another strong result demonstrating the confidence that loyal customers have in our product offering and auction platform.”
While emphasising that auction results should not be directly compared, Banks said Gemfields had “crossed the milestone of an average selling price of $300 per carat” at the latest auction.
“While the industry is currently facing some headwinds, arising in part from a softening in China, we hope this result provides good comfort to other stakeholders in our sector,” he said.
The rubies auctioned by the company this month were extracted by Montepuez Ruby Mining Limitada in which Gemfields has a 75% stake, while the company’s Mozambican partner, Mwiriti Limitada, holds the remainder.
Gemfields said proceeds from the June rubies auction will be fully repatriated to MRM in Mozambique, with all royalties due to the government of the Republic of Mozambique being paid on the full sales price achieved at the auction.
“The auction lots were made available in Bangkok for private, in-person viewings by customers. Following the viewings, the auctions took place via an online auction platform which permitted customers from multiple jurisdictions to participate in a sealed bid process,” the company explained.
Earlier this month, Gemfields announced that it had appointed former De Beers CEO Bruce Cleaver as its new board chairman.
With operations in Zambia and Mozambique, Gemfields made further changes to its board of directors, announcing that Cleaver would be taking over as board chair in addition to the appointment of two other new non-executive directors.
These include the appointment of Simon Scott as an independent non-executive director.
Previously chief financial officer for Lonmin plc and a non-executive director of First Quantum Minerals, Scott will sit on the company’s audit committee in addition to chairing the Gemfields risk council.
Gemfields also appointed Kieran Daly as non-executive director. Daly is currently an alternate director to Patrick Sacco on the Gemfields board.
For 2023, Gemfields reported an 86% fall in pre-tax profits after cancellation of a high quality emerald auction in November.
Revenues for the period dropped 23% to $262m, tipping the company into a post-tax loss of $2.8m for 2023, which sharply contrasted with the group’s $74.3 million profit for 2022.
However, executives at the company are bullish about gemstone prices and markets going forward.
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