Loughborough 2009 (Part Three)

In her second presentation Tracey Jukes spoke on Market Trends in Coloured Stones. She said in a time of gem value volatility, price trends are increasing. In sapphires there has been a 50% increase in stones over one carat in the last year. Madagascan pink sapphire, discovered in the 1990s, following a price rise has dropped to a quarter of Sri Lankan stones. In rubies there has been a 100% premium for Mogok, Burma goods and Winza, Tanzania goods being expensive. In emeralds following the sharp drop in prices in the late 1990s owing to media coverage of fissure filling with resin materials, prices have recovered: 2008 prices of fine material were 4/5^th of peak prices. In Brazil only the Nova Era mine is in production. Tracy pointed out that prices were rising on pink spinel, pink topaz, brown and blue zircon, tanzanite and aquamarines(but not in large sizes of these two gems), alexandrites and fine sapphires. Prices have fallen for Paraiba-type tourmalines, pink sapphires and demantoid garnet. She said treatments, the US ban on the importation of Burmese stones, availability couples with supply in producer countries and demand in consumer societies, and foreign exchange rates have affected gem prices. In conclusion, Tracy mentioned internet sales, the increasing prices of man-made stones, gem treatments, the ethics of treatment disclose, responsible trade practises and the standardisation of gem certification will be future issues to be addressed.

In the second workshop I attended Brian Dunn spoke on gem price guides. He summarised current published diamond lists in use by Registered Valuers: NAG Price Guide, The Guide, Market Monitor and the Rapaport Diamond Price List. He emphasised the current volatility of diamond wholesale prices due to the recent financial recession and emerging recovery is making the assembling of prices by the different lists and the tracking of prices by users somewhat difficult. He gave a number of hypothetical diamond grades for the attendees to value using the different lists and comparison were made and differences noted. Brian advised more than one price list should be utilised to value a diamond and an average of values calculated. He demonstrated differences in lists prices were greater for larger diamonds. Turning to coloured stones Brian suggested the user of The Guide’s published ten quality grades should concentrate on the mid four grades 4,5,6 and 7, likely to be encountered. Examples of gems displaying the four quality grades were shown. Brian suggested the dollar per carat price shown in the Guide should be used as sterling per carat (except in the case of cultured pearls). In the UK 10% should be added to the guide values of emeralds