The Argyle Diamond Mine

Western Australia's Argyle diamond mine is currently the world largest producer of diamonds. It's A massive open pit operation that spreads over one hundred acres and runs approximately 1,900 ft deep. Argyle diamond mine also churns out approximately 35 million carats of diamonds annually.

Its one of only a few economically viable mines left in the world. It truly is the only chunk of rock of its kind on the planet! There is no other area in the world which is so well endowed with diamonds than Argyle mine.

In the early 70's a renowned company called C.R.A. did a systematic search for the source of Austria's diamonds. They hunted for what they called indicator minerals. These are minerals that give some indication that there might be diamonds or Kimberlite in the ground.

Sometime in the late 1970's purely by good luck and success a startup company named C.R.A discovered diamonds in the stream sediments on Smoke creek. At that point in time, they only knew that the diamonds were coming from up the stream.

Another mining company leased the up steam land, but they where looking for copper and zinc instead of diamonds. C.R.A sat on the news of their discovery for over a year. It was absolutely top secret Until the lease from the previous mining company expired.

When the lease expired in the late 1970's C.R.A literally overnight hired every single helicopter, they could find and at nine in the morning, they pegged the ground. They then followed the diamond sediments up stream into what we know today as the Argyle pipe.

Where the Argyle pinks are found

Full scale mining operations at Argyle diamond mine began in 1983. Starting with the diamond rich top soil surrounding the main pipe. The miners first discovered the surrounding countryside covered in Alluvial gravel and the gravels that actually surrounded the pipe where quite rich in diamonds.

Before the construction of the mine, most of the infrastructure around the alluvial pipe was mined first. Digging on the main pipe didn't begin until 1985. By then the mines owners had the machinery and man power in place to run a state of the art operation. Argyle like most modern mines started out as a massive open pit.

The mine moves approximately 80 tons of dirt per 12 hour shift. That's about 53 million tons of dirt per year. Only a very small amount of that dirt actually contains diamonds. That's a lot of efforts and digging to get the diamonds out of the crucial ground.

Eventually, the open mine will play out and that's when the underground digging will begin. Its taken over 20 years for Argyle to eventually reach the level there at today. They predict that by the end of 2008 the underground operation will have come on- line. The cost is a staggering 1 billion dollar on infrastructure. The miners recover approximately 99.6 of all diamonds found.

The vast majority of all diamonds mined there are not high enough quality for jewelers. They have to many inclusions and to many flaws that jewelers don't like. Instead they are destined for industrial use.

The most widespread use is for diamond cutting, polishing tools and drilling bits. Argyle has also produced some gem quality diamonds. Most of the worlds pink diamonds are found there. Argyles famous pinks can run about 60,000 per carat. Argyle diamond mine