The 23-carat fancy vivid blue diamond, set to headline Christie’s May jewelry auction, was expected to sell for as much as $50 million.
Gemfields to Launch Global Marketing Campaign for Rubies
The campaign will focus specifically on Mozambican rubies and follows the company’s highest-grossing ruby auction yet.

London--Gemfields is scheduled to unveil a new global marketing campaign this week designed to ignite demand for its rubies mined in Mozambique.
The campaign, which was previewed for buyers at its recent rough ruby auction in Singapore, is slated to launch Wednesday in London, the city where the colored gemstone miner is headquartered.
The start of the campaign follows Gemfields’ highest-grossing ruby auction yet, which was a mix of high- and commercial-grade material that was both treated and untreated. (All treated lots, Gemfields said, were disclosed and involved industry-accepted techniques.)
The company reported revenues of $44.3 million, which topped its previous record of $43.3 million set at its December 2014 sale in Singapore.
Gemfields has held six auctions of rough rubies since it began selling the stones two years ago, with those sales ranging in revenue from $15.9 million to this auction’s $44 million total.
The auction’s average realized price was $29.21 per carat. A total of 44 companies placed bids and it was about 95 percent sold by lot, with 71 of the 75 lots finding buyers.
Because the auction was a mix of qualities and sizes, Gemfields said it cannot directly compare this auction’s average per-carat price with those achieved at other auctions, though it noted that “on a quality-for-quality basis, however, the per-carat price achieved were indicative of improved overall global demand when compared with previous auctions.”
Gemfields ruby auction took place June 13 to 19. It was the last ruby auction planned for this fiscal year.
The material sold at the auction was extracted by Montepuez Ruby Mining Limitada, which is 75 percent owned by Gemfields and 25 percent by local partner Mwiriti Limitada, from the Montepuez ruby deposit in Mozambique.
In addition to rubies in Mozambique, Gemfields mines emeralds and amethysts, both in Zambia.
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