Carat$102.9 million, up 72%: Gemfields' emeralds cover for its rubies
First-half auction revenue rose 72% to $102.9 million. Net debt stood at $44.2 million on June 30 before $33.3 million of auction receivables, and premium-grade ruby recovery at Montepuez ran at 0.025 carats a tonne.
§1Seventy-two percent more.
Gemfields took $102.9 million from its auctions in the first half of 2026, 72% more than in the same period last year. For a company that spent 2025 raising money and cutting spending, that is the first half-year in a while where the sales line has done the work. The result comes from two very different mines, and only one of them is behaving.
Kagem, the Zambian emerald operation, held premium output through the January to June period. Its higher-quality rough auction, held in London across May, took $26.8 million, selling 36 of 37 lots and 183,385 of the 185,135 carats offered at an average $146.08 a carat, a clearance of 99% by weight. A February mixed-quality ruby sale added $53 million from 121 of 135 lots. Between them those two sales account for most of the half, and the emerald book is the part carrying a premium.
§2Montepuez is the problem.
Montepuez is the problem. Premium-grade ruby recovery at the Mozambican mine ran at 0.025 carats per tonne, a low rate the company has attributed to a prolonged run of poor grade, and it is redirecting mining toward higher-potential areas while commissioning a new processing plant expected to reach full capacity later this year. Operating costs rose on fuel, exchange rates and mining volume. The response has been to schedule ruby auctions cautiously rather than push weak material into a thin market.
The response has been to schedule ruby auctions cautiously rather than push weak material into a thin market.
§3The auction calendar is the financing calendar.
The balance sheet still needs the auctions. Net debt stood at $44.2 million at June 30, before $33.3 million of auction receivables that had not yet been collected. Full results are due on September 25. For a miner whose revenue arrives in a handful of discrete sales each year, the timing of a single tender can move the debt line more than a quarter of production does, which is why the auction calendar is effectively the financing calendar.
This is the colour market's two-speed problem written into one company's accounts. Fine emerald with documented origin clears at 99% by weight and $146 a carat, while ruby waits for grade that the ground is not currently giving up. For dealers, the read is that
supply discipline is now the pricing mechanism in colour, and Gemfields is exercising it openly. For jewellers, the practical consequence is that fine Mozambican ruby will stay scarce and dear into 2027, and any programme built on calibrated goods should be sourced now rather than reordered later.
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