“Whereas public sale outcomes shouldn’t be straight in contrast, our workforce is proud to have crossed the milestone of a mean promoting worth of $300 per carat at this public sale,” Adrian Banks, Gemfields’ MD of product and gross sales, mentioned within the assertion.
The whole was nonetheless decrease than the $80.4 million Gemfields collected across the similar time final yr and barely under the $69.5 million obtained from December’s ruby sale.
The corporate, which additionally produces emeralds on the Kagem mine in Zambia, acknowledged the valuable gems trade, significantly the diamond sector, continues to face headwinds.
The diamond trade confronted substantial challenges final yr, with a world decline in demand for roughs gems that affected costs.
Financial challenges in key markets included China and the US, coupled with elevated provide of lab-made diamonds, prompted jewelry retailers to undertake a cautious strategy. This impacted diamond and colored gems gross sales, contributing to the general revenue decline of prime producers.
Gemfields’ pre-tax revenue nose-dived 86% final yr, due partly to the cancellation of an emerald public sale in November, a decrease variety of carats bought total and a write-down in its platinum group metals investments.
Confidence
The corporate, which has simply appointed former De Beers chief govt Bruce Cleaver as chair and unbiased non-executive director, stays optimistic concerning the market path.
“We’ve introduced one other sturdy consequence demonstrating the boldness that loyal clients have in our product providing and public sale platform,” Banks mentioned. “We hope this consequence supplies good consolation to different stakeholders in our sector.”
Gemfields believes the colored gemstone market is comparatively protected from the emergence of lab-grown alternate options, as man-made rubies and emeralds have existed for greater than 120 years and haven’t taken market share away from the mined gems section.
Shares within the treasured stones miner jumped greater than 5% on the information and had been buying and selling at 13p in London mid-afternoon. The inventory closed 4.9% greater Johannesburg, leaving Gemfields with a market capitalization of three.49 billion South Africa rand (about $195m).