Rough and polished diamonds sell at Alrosa auction
Monday, September 27th, 2010
The Russian firm auctioned off rough and precious diamonds at an event held to coincide with the Hong Kong Jewellery Fair.
Rough diamonds worth over $10 million (£6.31 million) were sold during an auction by Alrosa in Hong Kong.
The Russian firm, which held the event to coincide with the Hong Kong Jewellery Fair, said 89 lots of rough diamonds totalling 1,605.54 carats were made available to the 24 companies that took part in the sale.
Of those, 81 lots were sold, with $10.2 million raised by the company in total.
Among the diamonds that changed hands were three precious stones measuring over 50 carats in weight, with the largest rough diamond up for sale weighing 95.77 carats.
Polished diamonds were also on offer at the event – which ran from September 13th to 21st – with 79 examples made available and 69 selling, weighing a total of 264.66 carats.
Alrosa said in a statement the bids it received at the sale "testified to selective demand for diamond products and high clients' interest [in] rough and polished [diamonds] of fancy colours".
The company accounts for 97 per cent of Russia's overall diamond output, as well as 25 per cent of global production in terms of value.
