Rising Interest in New Ruby Material at Gemfields Mini-Auction

Gemfields made $11 million at its recent mixed-quality ruby sale, which featured goods from a new area of its Montepuez mine.

The company sold 62% of goods on offer from its Mozambique mine between September 29 to October 3, it said Monday. The mini-auction, which mainly showcased medium- and commercial-grade secondary material from a recently developed mining area, saw strong customer interest, highlighting growing demand for the new material. The auction took place online, with viewings in Bangkok.

 “As this auction is part of the early market discovery process for new material, we will leverage the market feedback received to refine our future offerings,” said Adrian Banks, managing director of product and sales at Gemfields. 

Gemfields sold 26 of 33 lots on offer, for a total of 184,418 carats of rubies, at an average price of $59 per carat.

Separately, illegal miners have severely disrupted operations at the new Montepuez Ruby Mining (MRM) processing plant over the past week, with 250 to 400 individuals sabotaging supply infrastructure on a daily basis, the company said. Illegally extracted rubies from Montepuez are also harming market prices and reducing Mozambique’s tax income. Gemfields and MRM are continuing to engage with the relevant government authorities.

The miner will defer its usual November/December ruby auction to January/ February 2026, owing to delayed commissioning at the processing plant, as ongoing illegal mining activity presents a further exacerbation.

Image: Rough rubies. (Gemfields)