Few making the cut
Rarest diamonds set for exclusive auction
THE world’s most exclusive collection of pink, red and violet diamonds was unveiled in Sydney yesterday ahead of an invitation-only auction in which a quarter of the winning bidders are Australian.
The annual “tender” of the finest and rarest diamonds extracted from Rio Tinto’s Argyle Diamond Mine in Western Australia were previewed to the media ahead of an exclusive global roadshow to buyers in Hong Kong and New York.
The 63 dazzling diamonds in this year’s collection weigh a total of 51.48 carats, with the gems including the largest vivid pink diamond ever extracted from the mine.
The 3.14 carat diamond called “The Argyle Alpha” is a polished emerald cut diamond which Rio describes as “enviable”, “iconic”, and with “captivating vivid colour saturation”.
These pink diamonds comprise less than 1 per cent of the total diamond output from the Argyle mine in the East Kimberly region of WA, which first began operations in 1984.
Rio Tinto chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques said the mine only has a few years of production left, which has prompted his diamond team to search the planet for new opportunities.
“We want to stay in the diamond market and clearly the expectation for the exploration team is if they can find us a new Argyle-type mine that would be fantastic,” he said.
Mr Jacques said despite strong interest from bidders in Europe, the Americas and Asia, Australians were surprisingly one of largest groups of buyers.
“Out of all the pink diamonds we are selling, one quarter of the buyers are from Australia, the largest market for us is the United States, but the Australian market is very significant,” he said.
Bids for the current auction close on October 10.