Rio has carefully managed the Argyle brand since the mine closed by improving its certification methods, creating a bespoke trading platform to buy and sell verified Argyle diamonds, and only offering the diamonds to two appointed jewellers.
Argyle was the only diamond mine in the world to consistently produce coloured diamonds, and decades of attempts to find “another Argyle” have failed to bear fruit, Kaufman said.
With Rio’s only other source of diamonds the Diavik mine near the Arctic Circle in Canada, the company is continually looking for new, potentially lucrative deposits from the Kimberley in Western Australia to Africa.
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“We continue to explore and using modern techniques on old ground to see what might have been missed in the past,” Kaufman said. “We’re very keen to continue to stay in the diamonds business.”
The diamond industry continues to diversify and, while Argyle diamonds are well out of the budget of all but the wealthiest, more affordable synthetic lab-grown diamonds could open the market to a new clientele.
Coppens said Rio had “thought about” getting into synthetic diamond production, but the company was focused on making the most of natural resources.
“With lab-grown diamonds, supply is technically unlimited. You can just create another lab and create as many as you want, so it’s a completely different product,” he said. “Natural diamonds, because they are becoming rarer and rarer, will probably be used more in top-end luxury pieces that are going to retain their value over generations.”
The $6 million diamond ring will be showcased and offered for sale at Sydney watch and jewellery boutique J Farren-Price.
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