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Sydney:
The world’s largest pink diamond mine has shut its doorways after exhausting its reserves of the costly gems, international mining large Rio Tinto stated Tuesday.
The Argyle mine, within the distant Kimberley area of Western Australia, churned out greater than 90 p.c of the world’s pink diamonds — wanted for his or her unimaginable rarity.
The seam was found in 1979 and the Anglo-Australian agency started mining operations there 4 years later.
It has since produced greater than 865 million carats of tough diamonds, together with a small however regular stream of prized pink stones, based on Rio Tinto.
Argyle workers and indigenous landowners attended a ceremony on the shuttered mine to mark the tip of operations.
The firm expects efforts to decommission and dismantle the 37-year-old website will take round 5 years.
“A new chapter will now begin as we start the process of respectfully closing the Argyle mine and rehabilitating the land, to be handed back to its traditional custodians,” mine supervisor Andrew Wilson stated.
Over the previous 20 years, the worth of pink diamonds has risen by 500 p.c, Rio Tinto’s Sinead Kaufman instructed public broadcaster ABC.
The finish of operations at Argyle is more likely to push the worth of the diamonds even greater, jewellers say. At present charges, the gems can fetch as much as $three million per carat.
Diamonds are sometimes clear, however jewels comparable to these mined at Argyle turn out to be pink via excessive warmth and stress throughout their creation. Those situations warp their crystal lattices and alter the reflection of sunshine because it passes via the physique of the diamond.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
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