JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed Gemfields, which earlier this month had to postpone its Singapore auction, said on Monday it would now sell its higher-grade rough emeralds in Lusaka, Zambia, at a July 15 to 19 auction.

The firm would auction rough emeralds mined by its 75%-owned Kagem Mining at its namesake emerald mine. Zambia’s government owns the remaining 25% stake.

The initial auction, which was to be held in Singapore during June, had been put on hold pending further discussions with the Ministry, following the then-Minister of Mines, Energy and Water Development, Yamfwa Mukanga’s move in April to restrain producers from auctioning emeralds outside the country.

“While we have received repeated assurances that there is no ban on overseas auctions, we have been asked by the Ministry of Mines to host an auction of higher-grade emeralds within Zambia as part of a consultative process,” explained Gemfields CEO Ian Harebottle.

Over the past few years, Kagem was the only emerald producer in Zambia that had sold emeralds through overseas auctions, the proceeds of which had been repatriated to Kagem.

“Both Gemfields and Kagem continue to actively correspond with the Ministry and hope that solutions supporting the optimisation of Kagem's revenues and the continued growth of the wider Zambian emerald sector will be reached as soon as possible,” he said.

The delay had resulted in lower auction revenues for Gemfields during the year to June 2013, as the group started a new financial year on Monday.

Gemfields had completed two auctions in 2013, generating aggregate auction revenue of $42-million, compared with the four auctions held in 2012, which generated auction revenues of $77.9-million.

Former Minister of Mines, Energy and Water Development Christopher Yaluma had been reappointed as the Minister in May.