Jammu, Apr 28: J&K Minerals Limited organized auction of rough sapphire ‘Corundum’ and crystals extracted by it from world famous Paddar Sapphire Mines (Kishtwar).
 The auction was held in presence of Minister for Industries & Commerce S S Slathia at Udhyog Bhawan Jammu.
 Number of buyers from abroad including Sri Lanka, Bangkok, USA and from within the country participated in the auction. The corporation sold sapphire corundum and crystals worth of Rs 50 lakhs. The attraction of auction, according to an official statement, was the display of 63.60 grams sapphire crystal extracted by the corporation during 2010 working season having value estimated worth crores.
 Though the bidder offered Rs 70 lakh for this precious stone, the auction committee preferred to withdraw the lot from the auction to sell it on global market. Other crystals of 13.13 grams and 7 grams were also the attraction of the bidders. The auction committee was presided over by Umang Narula, Commissioner/Secretary, Industries and Commerce Department, VC Sharma, Managing Director, JKML,   IA Ashai, Director Geology & Mining Department and other members of committee were present. Expert from NMDC Mumbai, IIT Mumbai and others also participated.
 To mention, the precious sapphire of Paddar is world famous because of its unique peacock neck blue colour and is rarely available in the world. The gem merchants and jewellers within and outside India have many a time shown great interest to purchase the unique mineral. According to experts, the exploitation of this mineral wealth could generate huge wealth for J&K.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 28 Apr 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 28 Apr 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 29 Apr 2011 00:00:00 IST