Argyle Pinks

Argyle Pinks

Australia's Argyle Diamond mine is the world's primary source (90%) of rare pink diamonds. Pink diamonds are at least 20 times the price of an equivalent white diamond. This places them in the rarified air of most highly concentrated form of wealth on Earth. After being cut and polished at Rio Tinto’s diamond cutting and polishing factory in Perth, exceptional pink diamonds from each year's production are sold individually at 'tenders'. The diamonds average around a carat each (1/20 of a gram) with 40 to 50 carats in total sold each year. Of every million carats of rough diamonds produced at the Argyle mine, less than one carat is suitable for sale in one of the tenders. Prices can range from US $100,000/ct to US$1,000,000/ct and beyond.

One of the biggest pink diamond sold at auction was the 12.04-carat "The Martian Pink" which sold for $17m in May 2012 ... more than twice it's pre-sale estimate of $ 8m.

In March 2012 a 12.76-carat pink diamond was unearthed at Argyle, the largest ever found in the country. It was christened as the Argyle Pink Jubilee. "A diamond of this caliber is unprecedented -- it has taken 26 years of Argyle production to unearth this stone, and we may never see one like this again," said Argyle Pink Diamonds Manager Josephine Johnson in a statement. Rio Tinto expects that after two months of assessment and planning, it will take ten days to cut and polish the diamond into a single stone.