Image suppliedThe enormous 187 700 carat Kafubu cluster has set a new record as the most expensive single emerald item ever sold by Gemfields, the precious stones group announced on Friday.
The total auction revenues of $30.8 million , from 34 lots sold, helped push Kagem's total auction sales in 2022 to a"record shattering" $149 million – up from a $92.3 million record set in 2021. The Kafubu Cluster comprised 44% of the total weight offered at the auction, Gemfields said. Kafubu, like the other emeralds, was extracted by hand from the Kagem emerald mine – the world's single largest producing emerald mine, which is 75% owned by Gemfields and 25% by the Industrial Development Corporation of Zambia.
The large mass is filled with numerous individual and intertwined emerald crystals and is named after the Kafubu river which forms the natural boundary of Kagem in the southern part of the Kagem licence.