The world’s most productive mine has closed!
By Victoria Gomelsky Nov. 17, 2020
Diamond mines are not forever — not even the world’s most productive.
After mining more than 865 million carats of rough diamonds since opening in 1983, the Argyle Mine in the remote East Kimberley region of Western Australia brought the last truck of diamond-bearing ore to the surface on Nov. 3.
Argyle was famed for supplying 90 percent of the world’s pink diamonds, among the rarest and most valuable gems on earth. But it was also noted, if less celebrated, for its vast reserve of inexpensive brownish diamonds, many of them in colors and qualities once shunned by fine jewelers.
“Argyle’s closing is like the death of an artist,” said Larry J. West, owner of L.J. West Diamonds in New York, which deals in fancy colored diamonds. “After Picasso died, what was his best art worth?” (Mr. West should know. In 2016, he purchased a 2.83-carat oval-shaped violet diamond at Rio Tinto’s annual silent tender, a trade auction of its small but extremely valuable cache of rare pink, red, purple and violet diamonds each year. “It’s impossible to value because it is so rare,” he said.)
A 4.15-carat light pink radiant-cut diamond, offered in 2001, remains the largest ever presented at the tender. Other superlative gems include the 2.11-carat fancy red Argyle Everglow, offered in 2017; the 2.28-carat oval-shaped fancy purplish red Argyle Muse, auctioned in 2018; and a 2.83 carat oval-shaped fancy deep grayish bluish violet diamond known as the Argyle Violet, offered in 2016.
Larry J. West, owner of L.J. West Diamonds, a fancy colored diamond dealer in New York City, is the owner of the Argyle Violet, which he described as “another magnitude of rarity above the pinks.” He declined to reveal what he paid, or what its theoretical sale price would be.
“A decent quality two-carat Argyle tender stone probably starts at $1 million a carat, wholesale, and goes up,” Mr. West said. “But when you have something that’s going to cease to be produced, it’s really hard to speculate.”