Madagascar lifts suspension on Energy Fuels’ critical minerals project
The Toliara project is expected to be a cornerstone source of monazite supply for the White Mesa mill, the company said.
Rubies from Montepuez, located at a geologically critical junction between the north-south trending Mozambique Belt and the east-west trending Zambezi Belt.
Shares in Gemfields (LON:GEM) climbed Monday as the precious stones miner said it generated sales worth almost $29 million from its latest ruby auction held in Singapore, with prices meeting expectations.
The company’s stock was up 3.4% to 40.84 pence in mid-afternoon trading in London. However, Gemfields value has dropped about 12% so far this year as the diamond and other precious stones industry has not remained immune to a relentless rout in commodity prices.
Gemfields managed to sell 90,642 carats of the 92,136 carats it made available under the auction, which consisted of a mix of higher and medium quality stones from its relatively newly acquired Montepuez deposit in Mozambique.
The event was third auction held by the company in the current financial year, which ends in June 2016. The first two were either comprised of higher-quality emerald or lower-quality emerald and beryl from its other Kagem mine, making it hard to compare the results, said the company.
Until recently, Gemfields was synonymous with emeralds. But the world’s biggest producer of the green gemstone has done quite well with Montepuez. A cache of exceptional-quality rubies from this mine have made their way onto jewels by the likes of Fabergé, Georg Jensen and Miiori – modelled by brand ambassador actress Mila Kunis.
The miner has said it expects trading in gemstones to account for a “sizeable chunk” of its revenue over the next five to 10 years.
The next auction, to be held in March, will be of predominantly higher quality emeralds from its Kagem emerald mine in Zambia.
Comments
Altaf
90K carats for 29M USD = USD320 per carat. Hmmm. Good price. Once good & Big stones separated, other stones treated, the whole lot will triple in value. I wish to see Emeralds auction in future.