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Argyle Diamonds

Since the end of the 19th century, small quantities of diamonds were found in Australia through gold prospecting.

Then, 1969 saw the commencement of a systematic exploration of Western Australia, and on October 2, 1979, diamonds were discovered in the Argyle volcanic pipe in the Kimberly Region.

Open pit mining began in 1985. The mine is owned by the Anglo-Australian mining giant, Rio Tinto.

The Argyle diamond mine is the world’s biggest supplier of diamonds. It yields about 80 percent brown diamonds, some 15 percent yellow hues, about 4 percent white diamonds and the remaining 1 percent are red to pink, green and blue hues.

Since 1994, some 35 million carats are produced in the Argyle mine every year, which accounts for over one third of the world’s annual diamond production.

The Argyle mine is one of the largest mines in the world, and is the main source of the rare natural fancy pink diamonds. It produces about 90 percent of the world’s supply of pink diamonds.

The stones are so highly valued that between 40 and 60 of the best diamonds are put out to tender every year.

The natural red diamond, one of the rarest among fancy color diamonds, is so rare that only a few stones are mined each year. Even these diamonds, produced by the Argyle mine are not pure red but rather graded as fancy-brownish-red, vivid-purplish-pink, Fancy purplish-red, and a few other variety of hues.The Argyle mine is the world’s leading producer of brown colored diamonds.
These are the most common natural colored diamonds available, and are often marketed as cognac and champagne diamonds in order to add to their charm. Since production has gone down in recent years in the Argyle mine and miners and geologists have yet to find new deposits, demand has increased and this trend is expected to continue.