Fura Gems eye on Indian market!
Fura Gems aims at expanding
the colored gemstone business in India
Update 1: Fura Gems Incis aggressively looking at organizing the USD 2 billion gemstone market globally and istargeting a market share of 8% to 10% in the next 3 years.
Focussed on this mission, the company also announced the commencement of its Bulk Sampling Program at the Coscuez emerald project in Boyacá, Colombia (theCoscuez Emerald Mine). The Bulk Sampling Program has been initiated and a total of 30,000 tons of material from the mineralized body are expected to be collected in the first phase of the program on or before 31 December 2018 using existing tunnels.
This will give a tremendous boost to Fura Gems’ operations in India since 60% of the world's emeralds are cut and polished in the country.
Dev Shetty, President&CEO of Fura Gems commented, “As a part of our larger expansion strategy, India is one of the top 3 markets for us. We are aggressively looking at the Bunder Diamond project in Madhya Pradesh and projects in the states of Jharkhand and Odisha which have a huge potential in terms of mineral deposits.
We will be exploring mining acquisitions in these regions and will be working closely with the central and state governments. Given our experience, we are confident of reducing India’s coloured gemstones imports substantially.”
MrRupak Sen, Vice President – Marketing & Sales of Fura Gems said, “India is the largest cutting and polishing centre for Emeralds in terms of volume. There is a growing demand for Emeralds in the Indian market and we intend to capitalise on the same by strategically organising the sector.”
Fura Gems owns a 76% beneficial interest in the Coscuez Emerald Mine, which covers a total area of 46 hectares. The main purpose of the Bulk Sampling Program is to collect the most representative samples from the mineralized body at different levels from all accessible tunnels and workings within the Coscuez Emerald Mine.
During the initial phase of bulk sampling, a total of 1,720 carats of emeralds were mined, out of which 826 carats were high quality emeralds. The Fura management team has started designing the pilot wash-plant to support the bulk sampling process with a rated capacity of 30 tons per hour and the Company expects such plant to be commissioned on or before 30 June 2018.
MrShetty further added, “We have achieved an important milestone by commencing the bulk sampling mining operation at the Coscuez emerald mine within eight weeks of the completing the acquisition of the mine. The initial production of 1,720 carats of emeralds, including 826 carats of top quality emeralds, during the early stage of the program further confirms the quality of the Coscuez emerald mine.
We will continue to build our geological knowledge of the license area and also strive to modernize the Coscuez emerald mine. Fura has now become the first publicly listed company in the world to commence a bulk sampling operation in Colombia, the world’s largest supplier of emeralds.
We have also entered into agreements to acquire four Ruby licences in Mozambique and have started with the exploration process and will soon be coming up with more details on that. Fura Gems owns 80% effective interest in these Ruby licenses.”
