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Myanmar Gems
Emporium"Biggest Ever"
On March 20, the 44th
Myanma Gems Emporium wrapped up. As reported by the official
New Light of Myanmar (NLM)
website, a total of 3,652 lots of jade, gems, and pearls
were sold, both through bidding and tender. NLM kept a
running total of lots sold throughout the sale, March 8–20.
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Emporium 2004. Sieghard
Ellenberger studying a large piece of maw-sit-sit at
Yangon Emporium.
Read more about
this rare material. (Photo courtesy Vincent Pardieu,
FieldGemology.com)
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Statistics from the March 2007 sale:
• 3,508 Jade lots, out of 5,858 on offer
o “One jade lot was worth 1.68 million euros (2.21 million
dollars), but the official did not reveal if this lot was
sold,” according to
Agence France-Presse (AFP)
• 47 Gem lots, out of 380 on offer
• 97 Pearl lots, out of 310 on offer
Merchants attending the sale numbered 3,419, including 2,068
from 13 other countries. According to AFP, “the Myanma Gems
Enterprise, which runs the sale, refused to disclose how
much the auction raised, and said only that it was the
‘biggest ever.’” The October 2006 sale garnered more than
$125 million. See all the stats
here.
Also on the 20th, the Minister of Mines, Brigadier-General
Ohn Myint, met with local entrepreneurs and executives.
According to NLM, “the minister called for more efforts to
be able to create a firmed market, to penetrate
international gems markets and to expand the gems industry
to increase the revenue of the country.” This is a
perennial harangue, as we
reported last October. And the market is threatened further
by revision of Thai industry figures.
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