Maars of Australia - Argyle Diamond Mine (Paperback)

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Argyle Diamond Mine is a diamond mine located in the East Kimberley region in the remote north of Western Australia. Argyle is the largest diamond producer in the world by volume, although due to the low proportion of gem-quality diamonds, is not the leader by value. It is the only known significant source of pink diamonds, producing over 90% of the world's supply. It additionally provides a large proportion of other naturally coloured diamonds, including champagne, cognac and rare blue diamonds. Argyle is currently transitioning from an open pit mine to an underground mine. The Argyle diamond mine is also notable for being the first successful commercial diamond mine exploiting a volcanic pipe of lamproite, rather than the more usual kimberlite pipe; much earlier attempts to mine diamonds from a lamproite pipe in Arkansas, USA were commercially unsuccessful. The Argyle mine is owned by the Rio Tinto Group, a diversified mining company which also owns the Diavik Diamond Mine in Canada and the Murowa Diamond Mine in Zimbabwe. A false-color NASA image of the Argyle mine. Blue colours show the location of the mine and its depressed elevation as a result of the open pit mining technique.The mine covers about 450,000 square metres (110 acres), stretching in a mostly linear shape about 1600 metres (5,200 ft) long and 150 to 600 metres (500 to 2,000 ft) wide. The mine is of open pit construction, and reaches about 600 metres (1,900 ft) deep at its deepest point. The open cut is nearing the end of its life and is due to close in 2010. An underground block cave mine is currently under development, and is likely to extend Argyle's diamond production until 2018. The Argyle diamond mine is located in the Kimberley region in the far northeast of the A... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=563896