Colored Gemstones Beginning to Make a Comeback

Mining Weekly reported that although diamonds have outshone colored gemstones since about the 1940s, when De Beers began aggressively marketing diamonds, such gemstones are now making a comeback.

As quoted in the market news:

Nonetheless, over the past five years, the coloured-gemstone sector has been growing at a compound yearly growth rate of about 18%, according to the United Nations commodity trade statistics database, with rough global imports for emeralds, rubies and sapphires currently amounting to about $3.3-billion a year.

However, accurate figures for the volume of all coloured gemstones produced by area or country are not available, says the global nonprofit organisation representing the coloured-gemstone industry, the International Coloured Gemstone Association (ICA).

‘This information is lacking because the gemstone industry is highly fragmented,’ explains ICA VP Jean Claude Michelou.

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