After 37 years, The Argyle mine has officially closed for good

BY PAIGE REDDINGER for Robb Report

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, employees of Rio Tinto, along with owners and stakeholders, attended a small event at the mine on Tuesday afternoon (ACT time) to formally announce its closure. Argyle will now undergo a rehabilitation of the land, a process that is expected to take five years. This is an end of an era!

Dealer Scott West, executive vice president of LJ West Diamonds, a go-to source for colored diamonds, also based in New York City, has an Argyle Violet on his hands. “Not only did argyle produce the beautiful pink and violet diamonds that captivated connoisseur and laymen alike, it also was a major catalyst for the entire color diamond renaissance that has pushed these rare stones to become some of the most valuable collectables in the world,” says West. “The Argyle Violet is the Mona Lisa of Argyle. No other mine has been capable of producing a similar color, so the argyle violet, being twice as big as the second largest violet from argyle, stands at the top of the diamond world, being the crown jewel of historic argyle artistry.

Australia’s famous Argyle Mine, which has mined 90% of the world’s pink diamonds since 1983, officially closed its operations today. On average it produced about 10,000 polished carats annually, but now that its coffer of gems has run dry, you can expect the already sky-high prices for pink diamonds to reach into the stratosphere.

The Scott West Argyle Motif collection