Myanmar has opened another major auction of gems and jade in the nation’s economic hub Yangon, despite international efforts to cut off the junta’s sales, state media said on Wednesday.

Nearly 400 lots of precious stones and about 1,200 lots of jade are up for sale at the auction that opened yesterday, the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.

Myanmar, one of the worlds poorest countries, is the source of up to 90 per cent of the world’s rubies. Myanmar sold gems worth 150 million dollars during the last auction in November

Posted: 01|16|08 at 8:13 pm. Filed under: Auction News.