Argyle Diamond Mine supplied the world with pink diamonds and other rare diamonds from Australia. As they close within the week, the price of pink diamonds is expected to sharply increase. Pink diamonds are the third rarest diamonds after blue and red diamonds.
Jeweler Rohan Milne said that the pink diamonds speak for themselves. "When you're putting a beautiful vivid pink diamond into a piece and you're polishing it up, the color just jumps out at you and it's amazing."
In the past two years, the value of pink diamonds has increased by 500%. With the closure of the mine in Western Australia, the land will be returned to its original owners.
Largest Pink Diamond Site
The site in the Kimberley region became the largest pink diamond mine in the world after geologists discovered the rare stone in the 1970s. A decade later, Rio Tinto began producing up to 95% of the world's rarest diamonds.
The pink diamonds range from floral roses, such as the diamond in the movie "The Pink Panther," while other stones are in the magenta and purple spectrum. Other diamonds gain their pigment from elements such as nitrogen, producing yellow diamonds, or boron, which produced blue.
However, pink diamonds had no traces of these elements. Scientists think that the crystal lattice may have been distorted by intense pressure and heat, producing a range of pink hues.
Since the 1980s, Argyle has produced over 800 million carats of rough diamonds. The pink diamonds make up nearly 0.01% of the mine's production. While the brown diamonds only have a small percentage of gem quality, all the pink diamonds Argyle has produced were consistently high-quality.
Tinto decided to close the mine due to the low supply of pink diamonds. Drilling costs are increasing and "it is now too deep to excavate beneath and extract them."
Read Also: Ashes into Diamonds - the Science Behind the Making of Synthetic Diamonds
Diamond Exhibits
Vivienne Becker, a jewelry historian, wrote about the exhibit Out of the Vault - A Celebration of Argyle Pink Diamonds, wrote, "Through history, since the discovery of diamonds in India thousands of years ago, the Pink Diamond has always been treasured, by Kings and Emperors, Princes and Potentates, for its nobility and rarity." The one-day exhibition in London displayed 42 pink diamonds worth 65 million dollars in Kensington Palace.
Tinto shared that the "'Rarity, uniqueness and a finite supply has driven the strong value appreciation we have seen, and continue to see." Pink diamonds have also been discovered in India, Brazil, and Russia, but with significantly less quantity than the Argyle mine.
The remaining few pink diamonds from Australia are currently being sold to specialists all over the world. In a few days, a little over 28,000 carats of rough diamonds will be displayed online and in Belgium and Israel. The exhibit will include a 26-carat white diamond and a yellow diamond called Diavik Helios from Tinto's mine in Canada.
Read Also: It's Raining Diamonds in Neptune and Uranus, but How Is This Possible?
Check out more news and information on Diamonds on Science Times.
