Bhopal: Miners Hold On To Their Gems, Waiting For Suitable Time To Auction Them

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): As the diamond market is passing through an unprecedented downtrend worldwide, diamonds kept in auctions are not getting high prices.

This may probably be the reason that not many diamond miners lucky enough to find the precious stones are coming forward to deposit their gems for auction, feel the officials of the Panna Diamond Office.

A senior officer of the Panna Diamond Office said that there was no enthusiasm among diamond miners as the market had been at a low for the past few years.

Now things had come to such a pass that the next diamond auction was under consideration but not enough diamonds had been deposited for auction.

It appeared that people who discovered diamonds were not keen to part with them and were waiting for the appropriate time to auction them so that they could get more money, the officer said.

Owing to the sluggish diamond market, there is decline in the number of people applying for diamond pit licenses. Apart from this, there are also some other compelling driving people away from taking the risk of mining for diamonds.

Naresh Jain, who has applied for renewal of lease for the diamond pit he had taken in Panna district, said that as hiring labourers to dig was proving costly and diamond rates were low, many people refrained from leasing pits. Moreover, there was no certainty of finding diamonds in a pit.

“In my life, I have never seen diamond rates at such a low level. The prevailing rates are akin to the rates 25 years back. In such a scenario, who would invest to look for diamonds,” he rued.