Spotlight - Diamond Mines

Published on 10/07/09

Argyle diamond mine, Kimberly, Western Australia

The Argyle diamond mine produces the largest volume of diamonds in the world with an annual production of around 7,000kg of diamonds. This is around one third of the global production of natural diamonds. Alot of the diamonds that come from the Argyle mine are brown diamonds which are quite hard to sell, on the other hand the Argyle mine produces 90-95% of the worlds pink diamonds which are very rare and in high demand.

Most diamond mines in the world work around kimberlite which is a type of volcanic rock that sometimes contains diamonds but the Argyle mine was the first to successful commercial diamond mine using a volcanic pipe of lamporite which is partially melted parts of the earth’s mantle at depths exceeding 150 km. This molten material is forced to the surface in volcanic pipes bringing with it xenoliths and diamonds.

The Argyle diamond mine is around 110 acres in size and is around 1,900 ft deep. The mind is located around 340 miles south of Darwin in Western Australia. Most of the workers commute from Perth around 1,200 miles away and work a two shift week basis, this is because the closest settlement is Kununurra which is 75 miles away. This means a complete residential camp had to be constructed on site.