Argyle diamond mine

Argyle diamond mine

The open pit of the Argyle diamond mine. A large mining truck is visible on the road for scale.
Location
Argyle Diamond Mine Location in Australia
Location	Lake Argyle
State	Western Australia
Country	Australia
Coordinates	16°42′44″S 128°23′51″E / 16.71222°S 128.39750°E / -16.71222; 128.39750
Production
Products	Diamonds
History
Opened	1985
Closed	2020
Owner
Company	Rio Tinto Group
Website	www.argylediamonds.com.au

The Argyle Diamond Mine was a diamond mine located in the East Kimberley region in the remote north of Western Australia. Argyle was at times the largest diamond producer in the world by volume (14 million carats in 2018^[1]), although the proportion of gem-quality diamonds was low. It was the only known significant source of pink and red diamonds (producing over 90% of the world's supply), and additionally provided a large proportion of other naturally coloured diamonds, including champagne, cognac and rare blue diamonds.

Mining operations ceased in November 2020, after 37 years of operations and producing more than 865 million carats of rough diamonds. Mine operator Rio Tinto plans to decommission the mine and rehabilitate the site at least through 2025.^[2][3]

The Argyle diamond mine is also notable for being the first successful commercial diamond mine exploiting a volcanic pipe of lamproite, rather than the more usual kimberlite pipe; much earlier attempts to mine diamonds from a lamproite pipe in Arkansas, United States, were commercially unsuccessful. The Argyle mine is owned by the Rio Tinto Group, a diversified mining company which also owns the Diavik Diamond Mine in Canada and the Murowa diamond mine in Zimbabwe.