Mumbai: Gemfields’ 75%-owned Kagem Mining has raked in $18.6 million from 3.92 million carats of emerald sold in Lusaka, Zambia at an overall average value of $4.75 per carat.

The auction saw 37% of the 10.68 million carats offered being sold.
Gemfields’ 33 auctions of emeralds and beryl mined at Kagem since July 2009 have generated $608 million in total revenues.

“We are pleased that the green shoots of recovery in the emerald sector first observed at our May 2019 emerald auction in Singapore have continued to grow…in Lusaka,” said Gemfields managing director of product and sales, Adrian Banks.

“The Indian market, which is particularly important when it comes to commercial quality emeralds and which has been navigating challenging conditions for some time, appears to have turned the corner and we hope will continue to go from strength to strength.”
Meanwhile, Banks said Kagem’s biggest impediment remains the 15% Zambian export duty imposed on emeralds since 1 January 2019.

“When combined with the pre-existing 6% mineral royalty tax, Zambian emerald exporters must now pay an effective 21% turnover tax on their revenues,” he said.

“The financial impact is being acutely felt by incumbent producers like Kagem, severely inhibiting money available for capital investment in growth and handing the tactical advantage to other emerald-producing countries like Brazil and Colombia, neither of which have any export duty on emeralds.”