Gemfields, one of the leading suppliers of gemstones has just announced it has ‘unearthed an “exceptional” 40-carat ruby at its Montepuez mine’ in Mozambique.
Gemfields PLC, described as an AIM listed multinational natural resources company, specializes in high quality emeralds, amethysts and rubies from its mines on the African Continent.
The gemstone miner, who also owns the largest emerald mine in the world at Kagem, Zambia, stated it expected the ruby to be sold at auction in Singapore before the end of the year (2014).
Chief executive of Gemfields, Ian Harebottle, said: “As an African by birth and at heart, I am exceedingly proud that possibly one of the finest rubies to have been discovered in recent generations has been unearthed from African soil.”
Gemfields have been having problems with its Fabergé jewellery brand and hopes to turn Fabergé around to a profit status within two years. While Gemfields, under the leadership of Harebottle, has seen a satisfactory 50 percent increase in its valuation this year with its share price now valuing the company at $415 million, it is still haemorrhaging one million dollars a month from the Fabergé Brand. Gemfields had planned to increase the number of Fabergé outlets but will scale that back to 12 to 15 over the coming years.
“All things being equal, we should certainly be a $1 billion business in the next 18 months. At that stage we would move from the AIM market to (London’s) main board. And from there, who knows?” Harebottle said. “Within the next two to three years I might sit my guys down and say ’shall we buy De Beers’?”
De Beers, the world’s largest diamond miner by value, is currently majority owned by diversified miner Anglo American since they bought it several years ago, and is worth roughly $15 billion.
“There is nothing wrong with Anglo but it’s mostly an iron ore company … in gemstones it is about the right tonnes and about promotion,” Harebottle said.“We don’t have to be as big as them to buy them. We just have to be going in the right direction and convince the shareholders that they would be better off with us.”
Gemfields PLC is an AIM-listed multinational natural resources company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, specialising in the mining, processing and sale of coloured gemstones, in particular emeralds and rubies.
Stock price: GEM (LON) 50.00 GBX 0.00 (0.00%) 26 Nov 5:21 pm GMT -
