JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Coloured gemstones miner Gemfields has recovered an “exceptionally rare” pair of matching rubies at its Montepuez mine, in Mozambique.
With a combined weight of 45 ct, the two rough rubies would be one of the highlights at the company’s ruby auction in Singapore next week.
This find followed the discovery of the 40 ct Rhino Ruby at the mine last year. The Montepuez deposit was thought to be one the most significant ruby mining concessions in the world.
“Several independent gemmological laboratories have confirmed that certain Mozambican rubies display the legendary “pigeon blood” colour previously reserved for rubies from Burma,” the company said.
“[The rubies’] discovery underscores the importance of the Montepuez deposit as a source of some of the highest-quality rubies the world has seen in generations. If this remarkable matching pair was to make it to the Paris Biennale in 2016 they would simply steal the show,” Gemfields CEO Ian Harebottle added in a statement on Tuesday.
The coloured gemstone market had seen several records broken in recent months. Most notably, a 25.59 ct Burmese ruby sold at Sotheby’s in Geneva, Switzerland for $30.3-million, making it the most expensive ruby ever sold at auction and setting a ruby world record of almost $1.2-million a carat.