May 2 (Reuters) - Precious stones miner Gemfields Plc reported a sharp fall in third-quarter production asunseasonably high rainfall in Zambia hurt output from its coreKagem mine.
Production fell about 45 percent to 3.6 million carats ofemerald and bery for the quarter ended March 31.
Gemfields, which produces about a fifth of the world's roughemeralds, reported grade of 198 carats per tonne in the thirdquarter compared with 265 carats per tonne a year earlier. (Reporting by Karen Rebelo in Bangalore; Editing by GopakumarWarrier)