Tuesday, January 10, 2012

All About Mining Diamonds Part 2

Argye mine located in the Kimberley region  in the far north east of Western Australia.  Owned by Rio Tinto, this mine is the world’s  largest single producer of volume of  diamonds.  However, due to low proportion  of gem quality diamonds it is not the value  leader.  It does produce 90-95% of the  world’s supply of pink diamonds. 

Diavik is also owned by Rio Tinto, located in  Canada it is a very large mine.   It is located  north of Yellowknife and south of the Artic  Circle on an island.  The island is connected  by an ice road.  It is also an important part of  the regions economy employing more than  700 people and producing more than 8 million carats annually.  

Ekati diamond mine is owned by BHP  Billiton and located south of the artic circle  in the Northwest Territories of Canada. The Ekati is Canada’s first operational  diamond mine.     Diamonds mined here  are sold under the Aurias trade name    Authenticity is verified through Canada Mark service.  CanadaMark service is also  owned by BHP Billiton Diamonds, Inc. 

 Baken diamond mine is located along the  lower Orange River in South Africa.  It is  owned and operated by Trans Hex.  The  average size stone for 2004 was 1.29  carats.   In 2004, this mine produced a  78.9 carat D color flawless diamond that  sold for more than 1.8 million dollars (US),  as well as a 27.67 pink diamond that was  sold for over 1 million US dollars.

Merlin is the second of only two diamond  mines in Australia.  No longer operating it  was owned by Rio Tinto and sold to Striker  Resources, who has explored the  possibilities of reopening the mine.    
Orapa is the world’s largest diamond mine.   It us located 240 Km west of  Francistown.  The mine is owned by  “Debswana” which is a partnership  between DeBeers and the government of  Botswana. This mine operates 7 days a  week.  It maintains pre primary and  primary schools for its employee’s children.   There is also a 100 bed hospital and game  park.  This mine began production in 1971  and is the oldest mine owned by the  Debswana Company.  

The Premier mine located in Cullinan, South  Africa produced the largest gem diamond  ever in 1905.  The Cullinan Diamond  weighed 3,106.75 carats.  This mine also  produced the Golden Jubilee diamond  which weighed 545.67 carats.  This mine is  owned by the De Beers Company and was  renamed The Cullinan Diamond Mine in  2003 in celebration of its centennial.

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