Rio Tinto Discovers 12.76ct Pink diamond at Argyle

(IDEX Online News) – Diamond miner Rio Tinto found Australia's biggest pink diamond at its Argyle mine. The 12.76-carat diamond is light pink, similar in color to The Williamson Pink.

The company decided that the main stone polished from the rough diamond would be named The Argyle Pink Jubilee, in honor of Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee.

The diamond was found in October 2011, and expert diamond polisher Richard How Kim Kam, who has worked for Argyle for 25 years, started work on polishing the in Perth last week.

Rio Tinto said that after two months of careful assessment and planning, it will take about 10 days to cut and polish the diamond as a single stone. Richard said, "I'm going to take it very carefully. I know the world will be watching."

The diamond will be sold as part of the Argyle Pink Diamonds Tender later this year.

"This rare diamond is generating incredible excitement. A diamond of this caliber is unprecedented - it has taken 26 years of Argyle production to unearth this stone and we may never see one like this again," said Argyle Pink Diamonds Manager Josephine Johnson. "The individual who gets to wear this remarkable pink diamond will be incredibly lucky indeed."

More than 90 percent of the world's pink diamonds come from the Argyle mine.

Christie's has only auctioned 18 polished pink diamonds over 10 carats in its 244 year history.