Fashion News: Is The Australian Argyle Pink Diamond Supply Exhausted?
Geologists continue the examination of Argyle diamonds (pink diamonds) to identify new locations that may contain this rare type of diamond.
Argyle pink diamonds are acknowledged as being among the rarest diamonds on the planet, and they are even getting rarer given the fact that the Australian Argyle mine ended operations in 2020. The closure of the mine resulted in demand levels exceeding the supply capacity of those in possession of these diamonds, which in turn caused the value of these diamonds to skyrocket.
It was no secret that the Argyle mine was undoubtedly the biggest contributor to the pink diamond market, and with the ability to buy pink argyle diamonds in Australia practically running dry, the interest to find new sources of such diamonds peaked due to the returns of actually locating places that may contain pink diamonds.
The Guardian recently published that geologists have an idea of where such diamonds may exist naturally based on the examination of the geological construct of the Argyle mine region. According to the publication that presented the findings of these researchers, the natural conditions for these diamonds to form are quite different from the conditions required to form other types of diamonds.
Based on this, researchers are looking at areas that possess ‘similar’ geological characteristics, such as extreme pressures and heat that are the drivers behind the formation of pink diamonds.
Another study that was published on the elements that are necessary for the formation of pink diamonds by the University of Curtin (Nature Communications) also indicated that the formation of pink diamonds was directly linked to continental collisions which debunks the previous theory which revolved around continental separations.
The study leans towards continental collisions as the primary reason as to why these diamonds turn pink and subsequently continental separations transported pink diamonds to the surface. These studies have now provided mining companies with a greater understanding of the required drivers or factors that are needed for these diamonds to form and could direct mining companies to new locations that may harbor such diamonds.
Hugo Olierook who is among the researchers from the University of Curtin stated that three elements are crucial for the formation of pink diamonds.
These elements are the presence of carbon during a continental collision which is followed by a continental separation and he concluded that any geographical location that underwent this process could potentially be the ‘next Argyle’.
The findings also revealed that the intense pressure that was present when Australia was formed two billion years ago when two subcontinents collided altered the carbon atom structure within argyle diamonds which caused reflected light to own pink or brown hues.
The diamonds were later transported to the surface when the continent separated about 1.3 billion years ago making them accessible to the mining industry. In summary, based on the findings of these studies, pink diamonds should be present at the edges of most continents where deep carbon is present.
However, there have been objections to this theory based on the fact that there have been mines at the edges of continents that contain diamonds, only pink ones. Currently, only Australian diamonds exist in pink and hence the name Argyle Diamond always refers to this type of diamond.
