Smithsonian Institution receives million-dollar diamond haul from Australian miner Rio Tinto

AN AUSTRALIAN mine has given away millions of dollars worth of super-rare rough diamonds this morning.

AN AUSTRALIAN mine has given away millions of dollars worth of diamonds.

Rio Tinto has announced this morning that it has gifted 500 carats of rough diamonds to the US Smithsonian Institution for exhibition and research purposes.

The significant donation of precious stones come from the Argyle Diamond Mine in the remote northwest of Australia.

This is the first collection of Argyle diamonds at the Smithsonian Institution, which is the world’s largest museum and home to the most notable diamonds and diamond jewellery in the world.

The rough diamonds, which are gems in their natural state before being polished, will now be studied by Smithsonian researchers at the National Museum of Natural History to better understand the geological history of the planet.

Diamonds from Australia will be exhibited in researched in the US.

​​“Diamonds typically formed more than 160km deep in the Earth (below the crust) and provide an exceptional window into the geologic processes and conditions that took place there 2-3 billion years ago,” the museum’s curator of gems and minerals, Jeffrey Post, said.

The collection includes rare, pink diamonds and fills a gap in the US National Gem and Mineral Collection.

Mr ​​Post is an expert on coloured diamonds and looks for clues about what factors lead to their various shades. His recent research has confirmed that the striking colour in pink diamonds is likely the result of a shock event in the gem’s history, either in the mantle or during transport to the surface of the Earth.

Rio Tinto has donated a massive haul of rare diamonds to the Smithsonian.

​​Due to the rarity and high value associated with pink diamonds, there is great interest to identify the origin of the colour to potentially reproduce it in a laboratory setting. It will also help to distinguish natural pink diamonds from synthetic ones in the marketplace.

The Argyle Diamond Mine is the world’s largest producer of natural coloured diamonds, and is also the first and only ongoing source of pink diamonds in the world.

Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh officially handed over the diamond haul at an event hosted by Australia’s ambassador to the US, Kim Beazley, in Washington DC this morning, Australia time.

“We are honoured to partner with such an esteemed scientific institution as the Smithsonian, and we are proud to share Rio Tinto’s story of our unique Argyle diamonds,” Mr Walsh said.

“This donation of Argyle diamonds represents an important piece of Australian mining history and we hope that it will be enjoyed by millions of people for many years to come.”

Rio Tinto's Argyle diamond mine in the Kimberleys, Western Australia. Picture: Calvert-borshoff Karin