Tag: diamonds

Happily Ever After

Happily Ever After

They are a fluke of nature and the ultimate in luxury, made in Australia. Discovered in a dusty creek bed in WA, today Argyle diamonds can be found every place diamonds are loved – sparkling in jewellery store windows to royal palaces to weddings to prized collections. Rio Tinto geologist Murray says while it’s hard enough to find a diamond deposit, getting a treasure trove of pink, red, blue, violet, champagne and cognac diamonds is “really something else”. “What we discovered at Argyle was an entirely new specimen of diamond,” he said. “It changed diamond markets forever and showed coloured gems in a whole new light – not just the famous Argyle pinks, which represented less than 1% of production,…

Glass blows the mind

Glass blows the mind

When Adelaide glass blower Karen Cunningham made art using diamond and glass, she had no idea it would inspire a new kind of hybrid material. Now a consortium of scientists, including from RMIT University and University of Adelaide, are using the technology to make a new class of quantum sensors. The study, published in APL Materials, reveals how high-performance diamond sensors can be made using conventional glass fibres. By embedding micron-scale diamond particles within the cross section of a silicate glass fibre, the team has demonstrated the use of a robust fibre material capable of sensing magnetic fields. Study lead author and RMIT School of Science’s Dr Dongbi Bai said it was an exciting achievement that opened the door to…

Pretty in pink

Pretty in pink

RIO Tinto has unveiled its annual showcase of the world’s rarest pink and red diamonds in an exclusive preview at the Argyle mine site in the east Kimberley region of WA. The 64-diamond collection, including three Fancy Red diamonds and weighing 56.28 carats in total, make up the 2019 Argyle Pink Diamonds Tender. Rio Tinto Copper and Diamonds chief executive Arnaud Soirat said the diamonds, each “a natural treasure”, were a testament to the enormous range and depth of offering from the Argyle ore body, nearly four decades from when production commenced. “Rio Tinto’s Argyle mine is the first and only ongoing source of rare pink diamonds in history,” he said. “With the life cycle of this extraordinary mine approaching…

Diamonds are Forever?

Diamonds are Forever?

BY ELIZABETH FABRI AUSTRALIA’S only operational diamond mine – Argyle – is almost at the end of its run leaving a huge void for emerging juniors to fill once it is depleted. Attention is now turning to the WA Government to relieve cost pressures facing budding producers, namely high royalty rates. The Rio Tinto-owned Argyle mine’s days are numbered with a little over a year on the clock until its doors close. The mine, not far from Kununurra in the East Kimberley, WA, was famed for its rare pink gems as well as its more common champagne and cognac-hued stones, which can fetch in the millions via international auctions. The end of Argyle will be a sad day for the…

An ethical approach

An ethical approach

The Argyle pink Jubilee diamond, weighing in at 12.76 carats, was the biggest pink rough diamond ever discovered in Australia. Image: Rio Tinto. By Elizabeth Fabri NOTHING exudes class and timeless beauty like an Argyle diamond. While the majority of the mine’s production are champagne and cognac in hue, on much rarer occasions Rio Tinto will unearth one of its famous pink stones. The spectacular and rare coloured diamonds found at Rio Tinto’s Argyle mine are synonymous with the Kimberley region’s vividly painted landscapes. Since the mine began operating in 1983, Rio Tinto has produced more than 800 million carats of rough diamonds through its 11 million tonnes per annum processing facility, with its name now in lights as the world’s…