After all, the Argyle Diamond Mine was famously the world’s most consistent source of fancy pink, blue, violet, and brown fancy colour diamonds; all of which were subject to very successful marketing campaigns.
With the closure of the mine in 2020 and the final tender wrapping up in the fourth quarter of 2025, the famous Argyle Mine has been relegated to history. Argyle’s power seems to have cast a shadow over other mining ventures, which have become stagnant despite promising prospects.
The Ellendale diamond field, also in Western Australia, closed operations in 2015 after its owner, Kimberley Mining Company, went into administration. Ellendale’s legacy stems from its high proportion of fancy colour yellow diamonds.
These exceptional gem-quality diamonds received international attention and Ellendale supplied significant quantities of fancy yellow diamonds to Tiffany & Co. during the mine’s operations.
The Ellendale area still has healthy prospects. Its E9 pipe, now under the ownership of Gibb River Diamonds, is expected to yield more than 40 carats per hundred cubic metres upon resumption of activities.
The region has promising projected outcomes for open pit and alluvial mining, with the latter entering the domain of small Australian mining company Indian Bore Diamond Holdings.
However, finding investors to financially support the project is proving difficult and new open pit and alluvial mining production in the Ellendale region have not made it to fruition.
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| The Argyle Diamond Mine was famously the world’s most consistent source of fancy pink, blue, violet, and brown fancy colour diamonds. |
The Northern Territory’s Merlin Mine shares a similar fate, with a history of ownership changes after the closure of full-time mining practices under Ashton Mining (later a subsidiary of Rio Tinto) in 2003, despite having good projected yield.
The most recent notable activity at Merlin was the acquisition of the mine by Perth-based company Lucapa in 2021. Lucapa went as far as planning to restart mining practices in 2024 before entering voluntary administration, halting its two-phase plan to revitalise the Merlin Mine.
Unlike Ellendale and Argyle, which are both best known for consistent supply of coloured diamonds, Merlin is regarded more for the size of its diamond crystals.
The largest rough diamond mined in Australia to date was discovered at the Merlin Mine in 2002 and named the Gungulinya-Bunagina. The Gungulinya-Bunagina diamond weighed more than 104-carat before cutting.
The discovery of other large diamonds and a small quantity of coloured diamonds at Merlin indicates that the area still has the potential for exceptional diamond discoveries.
Although Australia clearly has the natural resources available to re-emerge as a diamond powerhouse, the inability to finance mining operations and market the diamonds successfully has been problematic.
Indeed, these factors, as well as the failure to maintain momentum from Argyle’s fame means that operations are at a standstill.
The explosive emergence of synthetic, so-called ‘laboratory-grown’ diamonds, has contributed to the decline of the natural diamond market. In recent times, mining operations have been scaled back globally not just in Australia, due to decreased natural diamond uptake.
The luxury diamond industry has always been reliant solely on marketing and advertising. The natural diamond industry needs to claim back some footing against synthetic diamonds if mining is to continue.
Australia is uniquely positioned to lead a fresh new campaign for natural diamonds.
Australia holds an excellent reputation for mining practices, labour, and quality, and is already well-regarded for its diamonds due to the discoveries of Argyle and Ellendale.
Australia’s diamond resources should be considered for new natural diamond marketing strategies. Indeed, it would be a shame to keep such a treasure out of reach, and Australia should remain optimistic about its future in natural diamonds.
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