Rio Tinto buys back famed Argyle pink and red diamonds for latest tender due to dwindling stockpile

A select few with deep pockets are rolling into Perth to snap up the latest collection of Argyle diamonds, as unsold inventory of the ultra-rare gems whittles down to a “teaspoon”.

A top secret location in the CBD this week will host prospective buyers from Australia and overseas vying for 76 polished pink, red, and other coloured diamonds — predominantly unearthed at Rio Tinto’s shuttered Argyle mine in the east Kimberley region.

Argyle operated for 37 years up until 2020, and about 95 per cent of the world’s circulation of pink and red diamonds can be traced back to the mine.

Each carat of an Argyle pink or red can easily fetch a multi-million-dollar sum. Earlier this year a 1.56ct Argyle red sold for $US4.3 million ($6.4m) in Geneva, equating to $US2.7m a carat. One of the pinks in the latest collection weighs 2.63ct.

But not all of the famed gems sold are destined for an extravagant jewellery piece, with many opting to keep their purchase locked away in a vault as an investment.

“We have seen double digit price growth year on year for the past 20 years . . . and we seeing demand continue unabated for these stones,” Rio Tinto diamond sales and business development manager Michelle Sherring told The West Australian.

“The constrained supply means the value of pink diamonds has eclipsed any kind of comparable equity indices, like the Dow Jones and Hang Seng et cetera, over the years.”

Since mining ceased at Argyle Rio has touted each of its annual tenders for the diamonds as being one of the last.

“We now have a mere teaspoon (of unsold Argyle pinks and reds) remaining within our own inventory,” Ms Sherring said.

Stockpiles are now so low that for the first time ever the collection includes diamonds Rio has bought back from customers.

“Including the secondary market is a new concept for this year, we have very strong relationships with our long running customers,” Ms Sheering said.

“So I approached a handful of them at the beginning of the year in terms of the concept and we have over these years understood where some of the important diamonds sit and which safes they might be held in.

“It was a process of curation, and ultimately, what we have is a set of seven round diamonds which represent the real pinnacle of rarity.”

Of the 76 stones in the latest collection, 74 are from Argyle — the pink, red and blue diamonds — while the remaining two are a yellow and white diamond sourced from Rio’s Daivik mine in Canada.

Rio is displaying the collection — comprising 48 separate lots and weighing a combined 39.44 carats — on an invite-only basis in Perth, London, Singapore and Belgium. Bids for the tender will close on November 18.

Murray Rayner, who was previously the chief geologist for Argyle Diamonds, last year told The West that the existence of Argyle’s pink diamonds was due to a “fluke of nature” that will be extremely difficult to replicate.

Mr Rayner said the pink diamonds emerged around 1.8 billion years ago when the Kimberley collided into Australia, bringing pink diamonds closer to the Earth’s surface.

These pink diamonds were originally created at one point three billion years ago when our planet’s once-connected continents began to rip apart, with the intense pressure from this event causing the pink colouration in the diamonds.

“To find another deposit would be an extraordinarily rare event in its own right, we’ve looked over the last few decades without any success,” he said.

Source: DCLA

One of the Last Argyle Pinks Leads Online Auction

A loose 0.94 carat Argyle Pink – one of the last recovered from the iconic mine in Western Australia – is being sold at auction.

It is the highlight of a 416-lot online event (ending 11 August), featuring many items that belonged to Graham Jackson, former owner of Loloma Jewellers, located in Townsville, Australia, who died aged 92 in May.

The cushion cut fancy intense VS1 gem is designated as 6P – 6/10 for intensity of hue and P for pink as the dominant hue.

It was sold at the 2021 Argyle Pink Tender-Rio Tinto’s Final Collection, the last tender from the mine, which closed in November 2020 after 37 years, during which it produced 90 per cent of the world’s pink diamonds.

The stone is being sold by Sydney-based First State Auctions, with an estimate of AUD$700,000 to AUD$800,000 (US$455,000 to U$520,000).

Last January Tiffany & Co. has bought a parcel of 35 Argyle pinks – from 0.35 carats to 1.52 carats – for “select clients”.

Source: DCLA

Fancy Color Diamond Prices: First Drop in Almost Four Years

Fancy yellow cushion cut diamond

The Index tracking fancy color diamond prices fell during the last quarter, for the first time in almost four years.

The Fancy Color Diamond Index, which monitors pricing data for of all sizes and intensities of fancy color diamonds, fell by 0.7 per cent during Q2 2024, according to an update published yesterday (30 July) by the Fancy Color Research Foundation (FCRF).

The last recorded fall was back in Q3 2020 – in the depths of the Covid crisis – when the Index also fell by 0.7 per cent. That came after two quarters when sales were too slow for the FCRF to produce figures at all.

The trend over the last year or so has been of slower growth. The Index was up 1.3 per cent in Q1 2023, followed by +0.5 per cent (Q2); +0.4 per cent (Q3); +0.1 per cent (Q4) and +0.1 per cent (Q1 2024).

The New York-based FCRF played down the Q2 dip, describing it as “a minor fluctuation when compared to broader market movements”.

It said in a statement: “This stability is particularly evident relative to the sharper declines in the white diamond market and the Dow Jones index, which fell by 3.6 per cent and 1.7 per cent respectively during the same period.

Yellow diamonds (all sizes, all intensities) suffered the biggest drop, down 1.7 per cent. Pinks and blues were both down 0.3 per cent.

The FCRF said its Index had enjoyed an overall increase of 211 per cent since it began compiling data in 2005. During that time it said the price of yellow diamonds had risen by 56 per cent, pinks by 398 per cent and blues by 248 per cent.

Source: DCLA

Tiffany’s tickled pink to be grabbing the world’s last Argyle diamonds

“This is truly once in a lifetime,” says the jeweller’s chief gemologist of the 35 sparklers acquired from the now-closed mine in the Kimberley.

Vicky Reynolds wants to take you on a date with a diamond.

Reynolds, Tiffany & Co’s chief gemologist, has had the enviable task of chaperoning the final 35 Argyle diamonds sold around the world, meeting with potential buyers and discussing exactly how these incredibly rare and exceptional gemstones will be used.

It is, she says, “the stuff my dreams are made of. This is truly once in a lifetime.”

Reynolds has worked with New York-based Tiffany & Co since 1987 – almost as long as the Argyle diamond mine, owned by Rio Tinto, operated in Western Australia’s East Kimberley region (it opened in 1983). When the mine closed in 2020 due to finite resources, the final annual tender – ordinarily a highly anticipated and prestigious event on the gemstone calendar – was considered the hottest ticket going.

The Argyle mine produced 90 per cent of the world’s pink diamonds, and each year, only 50 to 60 were ever offered in an invitation-only tender process. So when Rio Tinto rang Reynolds after the tender, to offer Tiffany and Co a further 35 diamonds noted for their vivid pink and purple colour, she jumped at the chance.

Source: DCLA

 Rio Tinto unveils Argyle Rose heirloom piece

Rio Tinto has unveiled the latest heirloom piece of Argyle Pink Diamonds jewellery, featuring one of the last diamonds to be mined from the iconic Argyle mine in the East Kimberley, Western Australia.

Mining ended at Argyle in November 2020, after 37 years of uninterrupted production, during which the mine became the source of about 90% of the world’s prized rose-to-magenta hued stones. The mine produced more than 865 million carats of rough diamonds.

Designed by Western Australian jeweller Solid Gold Diamonds, the Argyle Rose features a total of 3.25 carats of rare Argyle pink and blue diamonds encrusted in a rose motif, surrounded by white diamonds and hand-set in platinum and 18 karat gold.

The heart of this piece is an extremely rare 1.36 carat, Fancy Deep Pink radiant cut diamond. It is just one of twelve radiant cut diamonds over one carat with a colour grading, 1P, from the last 30 years of production from Argyle.

The surrounding petaled design of pink and blue Argyle Diamonds totals 1.89 carats, together with 2.80 carats of white diamonds. The Argyle Rose is for sale at Solid Gold Diamonds in Perth for A$2 million.

“I am delighted to launch the Argyle Rose. Encapsulating a rich history and an extraordinary provenance, it is both a contemporary treasure and an heirloom for tomorrow,” Sinead Kaufman, Chief Executive of Rio Tinto Minerals said in a statement.

“These rare and precious diamonds are one and a half billion years old, from one of the most beautiful places on earth, and the world is simply not producing them anymore.”

Source: DCLA

Tiffany Buys Some of a Legendary Diamond Mine’s Last Finds

 

               Argyle Diamond Mine in Australia.

The new Tiffany Collection comprises 35 gems, including an unusual red stone, from the Argyle Diamond Mine in Australia.

About a year ago, a representative of the Argyle Diamond Mine — a site in Western Australia that was the pre-eminent source of pink diamonds until it closed in 2020 — approached Tiffany & Company’s chief gemologist with an unusual offer: the chance to purchase a collection of diamonds that were among the last stones taken from the mine.

The decision, Tiffany executives said, didn’t require much consideration.

“We had to do it,” Anthony Ledru, the brand’s president and chief executive, said in his bright office in New York’s Flatiron district. “It’s perfect with what we stand for.”

The purchase, which was finalized several months ago, involved 35 diamonds of various shades: pink, almost purple and even one red gem, an especially unusual color for a diamond. The gems, which had already been cut in various styles, “checked off all of those boxes: rarity, scarcity and beauty,” said Victoria Reynolds, Tiffany’s chief gemologist.

But the stones are small, ranging from 0.35 carats to 1.52 carats, considerably more petite than the statement-size gemstones frequently used in engagement rings and solitaire necklaces.

“These are small, there’s no doubt,” Ms. Reynolds said, “but for connoisseurs, collectors who understand how rare these are, it’s incredibly appealing.”

How much did the jeweler pay for what it now calls the Tiffany Collection? Mr. Ledru wouldn’t disclose the sum, but said it was “probably not enough compared to what it’s going to become in the next five, 10 years.” (He did note that it was Tiffany’s largest single purchase of 2022.)

Exactly how the diamonds will be used in jewelry hasn’t been decided, although Mr. Ledru said it was likely that they all would be used in one-of-a-kind designs. In the meantime, the diamonds are being shown to select clients in New York City and, next month, in Doha, the capital of Qatar.

The eventual prices are sure to be high. “You pay a premium for anything that says ‘Argyle pink diamond,’” said Renée Newman, an independent gemologist and author based in Los Angeles.

Source: DCLA