Canadian stock exchange-listed Fura Gems Inc plans to bid for diamond mining at Bunder in Madhya Pradesh. The State government is expected to call for bids in the next two months.

Interestingly, Rio Tinto, the world’s largest mining company, had invested about $90 million on exploring the diamond mine for the last 12 years and had given it back to the government in February due to delay in getting various statutory approvals.

Dev Shetty, President and CEO, Fura Gems, said after working on the project for nine months the company had a meeting with the government officials recently and is confident that it will come up for auction in the next two months.

“If we succeed, the project would require about $50 million at the exploration stage in the first year and would turn cash-positive in two years,” he added.

The mine has about 35 million carat of diamond reserves and the initial mining plan is about 1.5-2 million carat per annum, he added.

As a part of expansion strategy, Shetty said India is one of the top three markets for the company and will be working closely with the central and State governments given its experience in colour gemstones.

The company, which is listed on TSX Venture Exchange, plans to conduct its first auction for emeralds in March next year at its headquarters in Dubai.

Rupak Sen, Vice-President (Marketing and Sales), Fura Gems Inc, said India is seeing a steady growth in demand for coloured gemstones driven by millennials, who prefer colour in their jewellery.

Besides a growing preference to add more colour in their jewellery, the millennials also are finding it affordable making coloured stones more attractive for them, he said.

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