With the next Specials sale by the state stockpile Gokhran agency set to take place this coming week, Alrosa has said that no date has yet been fixed for its next auction of 10+ carat diamonds. The Gokhran sale is scheduled to take place on October 26, 2010. But according to Alrosa spokesman, Yury Beskakotov, the date for its next sale "is still unknown.”

The Alrosa auctions are open to Russian and international bidders; the Gokhran sale to Russians only.



The last Alrosa Specials tender auctions were held in Moscow in August and September and generated $25.5 million in sales and $21.9 million, respectively.



Alrosa said both numbers were well over "their estimated price."

In past years, the company reported how many carats were offered for sale, and how many carats were sold. Now the caratage offered is reported, but only numbers of lots sold, making it impossible to tell how many carats in the lots were sold, or to estimate per carat price averages.

Last month, Alrosa ran a sale of both rough diamonds and polished diamonds of all sizes in Hong Kong.

A press release from the diamond company disclosed that 89 lots of rough, with a total weight of 1,605 carats, were offered, but only 81 lots were sold.

No carat volume for the sale was reported, but the sale value was $10.2 million.

Of the 79 polished stones weighing 286 carats, the company said it sold 69 stones, weighing 264.6 carats, for a total value of $3,323,000; average carat value realized in the sale of polished was $48,159. Thirty-three bidders came from China, Hong Kong, India, Thailand, Israel, and Belgium.