Alrosa, the Russian diamond miner, held its first rough diamond auction in New York this year, selling stones of 10.8 carat and up. The total revenue from the auction amounted to $11.8 million.
The company sold 107 stones at a total weight of 1,900 carats. Over 30 firms from the chief diamond trading hubs, such as the USA, Israel, Belgium, India and the UAEm, participated in the auction.
"We held the first auction this year in the United States, selling almost 90 percent of the auctioned stones. In general, the market today is experiencing an increase in activity and interest in our products maintains stable. We invited about 20 American companies to this auction and some of them participated. The overall sales exceeded the total opening bid by 50 percent, amounting to $11.8 million. Today this is the highest revenue from single auction since we resumed the operations of our USA office, which is now headed by Rebecca Foerster," said Evgeny Agureev, Member of the Management Board, Director of the United Selling Organization at ALROSA.
Last year, ALROSA resumed its operations in New York and held two diamond auctions there, with overall revenue amounting to $18.3 million. The company's auction schedule for 2019 includes four auctions in the United States.