Strong Results from Final "Beyond Rare" Tender
November 12, 25
(IDEX Online) - Rio Tinto has reported "strong results" from its third and final Beyond Rare tender, though it declined to say how strong.
It featured polished fancy color diamonds from the famed Argyle mine, in Australia, which closed in November 2020, and white diamonds from the Diavik mine, in Canada (the company's last remaining diamond mine) which is due close next year.
The sale, entitled Into the Light, comprised 52 lots, with a total weight of 45.44 carats.
They included one fancy red diamond, 12 fancy violet diamonds and 76 fancy pink, purple-pink and purplish pink diamonds from Argyle, together with two flawless D-color white diamonds (5.11-carat emerald-cut and a 3.02-carat pear-shape from the same original rough) from Diavik.
Lot 1, a set of two fancy vivid purplish pink pear shapes of 0.25 carats each, together with the 5.11-carat diamond, was bought by Singapore-based Glajz THG, in collaboration with Danish jeweler Hartmann's.
Since Argyle opened in 1985, Rio Tinto has sold about 2,500 carats of rare pink, red and blue polished diamonds, representing less than 0.0003 per cent of the mine's output.
"Presenting this final collection of Rio Tinto's rarest diamonds is a wonderful epilogue to Rio Tinto's inspiring story of mining and marketing diamonds," said Patrick Coppens, general manager of sales and marketing for Rio Tinto diamonds.
"No one could have foreseen, in the early days of exploration, how this magical diamond story would unfold."
Pic courtesy Rio Tinto.