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Name : Argyle diamond mine
Location : East Kimberley , Western Australia
The Argyle diamond mine is in a remote region of northeast Western Australia.
Coordinates:-16.719356354801818 , 128.38492713535314
Why it ’s unbelievable : The now - closed mine is the source of 90 % of pinkish diamonds on Earth .
The Argyle mine held the braggart cache of pinkish diamond ever pick up on Earth . Unlike drab and icteric diamonds , which are tinted by impurities like nitrogen and atomic number 5 , pinkish diamonds get their color through geological processes that strain their crystalline structure . Pink baseball diamond are highly rare and can fetch more than $ 2 million per carat ( 1 carat is equal to 0.2 grams , or 0.007 ounce ) , according to theInternational Gem Society .
Jewelry illustration of a pink Argyle diamond ring set with white diamonds and gold band.
The Argyle mine closed in 2020 due to a dwindling provision ofdiamondsandunfavorable economic conditions , including a rise in operational costs . The mine sits on the shores of Lake Argyle in a distant neighborhood of northeast Western Australia , 340 miles ( 550 kilometer ) sou'-east of Darwin . excavation operations there go 37 years and yielded more than 865 million kt ( 191 tons , or 172 measured tons ) of pugnacious adamant — including white , blue , reddish blue , pink and red baseball field , according toRio Tinto , the company that owned and operated the mine .
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The Argyle rock formation is an unusual bit for diamonds , because it sits on the edge of a continent rather than in the middle , where the precious stones typically emerge . In increase , diamonds are usually found in kimberlite rock formations , but the Argyle constitution sport a type of volcanic rock call olivine lamproite .
Researchers dated the John Rock at Argyle shortly after the site was discovered in 1979.Initial resultspinned their years somewhere between 1.1 and 1.2 billion year old , but last yr , a unexampled studyrevealed the rocks are 1.3 billion years sure-enough . This puts the Argyle establishment ’s origins properly at the scratch of the detachment of the supercontinent Nuna , revealing clues about how the diamonds spring — and why so many of them are pinkish .
Pink diamonds are born out of specific heat and pressure conditions that uprise when tectonic plates collide . The sheer force of these collisions can turn away the crystal lattice of pre - existent diamondsin a room that colour them different subtlety of pink — although too much force-out can turn them dark-brown , Hugo Olierook , a senior enquiry fellow at Curtin University in Australia and lead author of the 2023 work , antecedently told Live Science .
The supercontinent Nuna formed when two section of Earth ’s crust crash into each other around 1.8 billion year ago . The region in which they are thought to have smashed together overlaps with the present - day Argyle organisation , suggesting the hit gave salary increase to Argyle ’s pinkish baseball diamond . At that decimal point in time , however , the diamonds would have been bury deep within the crust .
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But 500 million years later , when Nuna began to smash apart as the tectonic plates incite away from one another , therocks carrying the diamonds rear to Earth ’s airfoil . Those rock candy also contained an copiousness of browned diamonds , which Rio Tintomined and sold in immense numbers .
Argyle is an exceptional touch , and while it ’s potential there might be another such stash of diamonds somewhere , finding it will " take a mass of luck , " Olierook said .
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