Australia has had a reputation for top quality Sapphires for a long time. Sri Lankan and kashmir Sapphires take the prestigious top place for their beautiful quality sapphires but Australian sapphires have been popular to those in the know because of their deep blue colours and general good quality.Australian Sapphire Prices Are Set To Boom.
Stock Supply
Australian supply of sapphires is small compared to many international gemstones. Many Australian mines have closed down since 1990 when more treated gems were marketed in Asia. The Australia Sapphire could not compete against the price of these treated stones.
Sapphire mines in Madagascar, who supply the majority of the worlds Sapphires, until 10 years ago have been exhausted and old stocks have already been sold. Production of Sapphire in this region is now limited
Sir Lanka has also not increased production and Gem guide tracking shows prices have increased 20-30{5f012ed296dba5fac9fc7119d8346bdddc246b29cdda9da1d268f2ef9c3fe197} per annum since 2011.
Kashmir blue sapphires have already increased 100{5f012ed296dba5fac9fc7119d8346bdddc246b29cdda9da1d268f2ef9c3fe197} in price due to low availability of this deep blue sapphire.
We are now at a cross roads where demand overtakes production. No large sapphire mines have been started and all countries including Brazil now have high environmental studies to complete before production. With current requirements it can take up to 5 years to bring new mine into production.
Chinese Demand
This new emerging market does appreciate deep blue Sapphires and could greatly increase price of Australian blue sapphires.Chinese buyers have steadily increased since 2011. Originally they purchased yellow and parti sapphires but now they prefer deep blue colours.
In 2015 Chinese buyers were strong but they have slowed down recently with strong Anti Corruption Policies being rolled out in China. This lead to many rich Chinese having stopped or slowed down buying expensive items.
However with hundreds of millions of middle class now emerging from the farming sector it is obvious that demand pressures will build up rapidly for sapphires.
The bottom line is if you are thinking of having a custom sapphire ring made -do it sooner rather than later!
