Richland sees signs of sapphire pricing recovery

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed Richland Resources’ strategy shift to larger-scale sales events appears to be yielding results, with CEO Bernard Olivier reporting on Monday that the company had started to see signs of prices recovering.

Richland, which owns the Capricorn mine in Queensland, achieved total sales revenue of $388 000 between late October and early November, from the sale of rough heated and unheated sapphires.

Lower-quality sapphires (2.23-million carats) sold for $0.04/ct and brought in $85 147. Commercial-quality sapphires (117 677 ct) sold for $1.57/ct and yielded $184 599. Higher-quality sapphires (38 076 ct) fetched $3.11/ct and netted $118 546.

“For the past six months, sapphire pricing as a whole has suffered from commercial buyers sourcing gemstones from illegal mining activity in Madagascar, more specifically a field located within a national park and operated under extremely dangerous working conditions. These latest sales results, achieved under our larger-scale sales events strategy, saw some positive signs of recovery in sapphire pricing for our ethically sourced sapphires,” Olivier said.

Richland pointed out that the sapphires sold by the company had full supply chain assurance in terms of Australian health and safety compliance, as well as full compliance with Queensland’s mining code in terms of environmental best practice.

The company is planning its next larger-scale sales events, which will include cut and rough sapphires, for mid-December.

Richland, which recently adopted a new sales strategy of selling uncut sapphires at larger-scale sales events to combat a flow of illegally mined stones from Madagascar, has noted signs of prices recovering, the company reported on Monday.