Hand Trades

Australia is one of the greatest contributors to the diamond industry. In fact, it produces the greatest number of rough diamonds of any country in the world. The year 1982 marks the start of Western Australia’s activity in the diamond industry. What makes Australia such an interesting addition to the diamond community is that it was the very first western, democratic nation to enter into diamond production. The government in Australia is not involved in the diamond mining process, nor does it own the diamond mines themselves. Hence, it does not stand to gain anything from supervising the marketing aspect either. For that reason, the diamond industry in Australia doesn’t leave many openings for dishonest practices or political involvement on behalf of the government.

Three of the most productive diamond mines in Australia are the Argyle Mine, the Ellendale mine, and the Merlin mine. In the year 2005, these mines generated nearly 33 M carats worth of diamonds.

The Argyle mine is currently Australia’s biggest diamond mine, producing the following:

Five percent – diamond gemstones Seventy percent – near-gemstones
Twenty five percent – industrial quality gemstones
Seventy two percent – brown diamonds
Twenty seven percent – colorless diamonds and different shades of yellow
Under one percent – different shades of pink to red diamonds

An open mining project in the Argyle mine that was originally to be finished by 2008 has been changed to an underground diamond mining project in an attempt to maximize the diamond mine’s lifespan by approximately 10 years. In about 8 years almost 20 M carats are expected to be generated by the Argyle diamond mine each year. In addition, another project known as Phase Two is also in the works for the purpose of extending the diamond mine’s productivity to the year 2024. The investment in these underground mines entails a substantial investment of 910 M USD. Nonetheless, if these projects had not been undertaken, the Argyle diamond mine would be expected to arrive at its final output in just 2 years. As for the Argyle mine’s marketing efforts, from 1982 – 1996 the diamond mine’s output was vended to the DTC. About 14 years ago, the mine began to market its diamonds independently.

The Ellendale mine is the second highest producing mine in Australia. From the diamond mine’s beginnings in the year 2002, a company known as Kimberley has generated and vended nearly 397,000 carats of diamonds worth about 70 M USD. If forecasts prove to be accurate, the Ellendale diamond mine will have generated approximately 122 M USD every year until it will be completely exhausted in the year 2014.

The 3rd most productive diamond mine in Australia, the Merlin mine, which opened towards the end of 1998, has not had much stable ownership, but now it’s held by North Australian Diamonds. It is difficult to assess the exact amount of diamonds to be generated from the Merlin diamond mine because it is quite unpredictable.

Though vast quantities of diamonds are mined and produced in Australia, the majority of them are exported. As for Australian rough diamonds, they are most often not up to international standards. This is the reason why Australia is still the highest producer of rough diamonds, it is not in the highest ranking as far as value in the diamond industry.

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