AncientWorldArtifacts: Argyle Pinks

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Argyle Pinks

Australia's Argyle Diamond mine is the world's primary source (95%) of rare pink diamonds. Pink diamonds are at very 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 far beyond.

8.41 carat Purple-Pink Diamond

The 12.04-carat "The Martian Pink" sold for $17m in May 2012, 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. 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 stone.

The Argyle Siren, 1.32 ct. square radiant cut Fancy Vivid Purplish Pink, VS2

The Argyle Toki is a 1.59ct emerald cut Fancy Intense Purplish Pink diamond

The Red Wonder Cross. It was designed by Oren Seren and features 11 fancy red diamonds (0.42-0.93 carats), as well as colourless and blue diamonds, set in white gold.