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    • Rio Tinto Unveils ‘Impossibly Rare’ Diamond

    Rio Tinto Unveils ‘Impossibly Rare’ Diamond

    Posted On April 1, 2016

    Melbourne, Australia–Last year, Rio Tinto made an astounding discovery at its Argyle mine in Western Australia and never said a word about it.

    The diamond mining company unearthed a 9.17-carat piece of rough that yielded a stone Rio Tinto Diamonds’ Patrick Coppens describes as “impossibly rare”–a 2.83-carat fancy deep grayish blue violet diamond that it dubbed the “Argyle Violet.”

    It is the largest violet diamond ever recovered from the mine. And now it will embark on a world tour, of sorts, as part of the 2016 Argyle Pink Diamonds Tender.

    The Gemological Institute of America assigned the oval-shaped stone a color grade of fancy deep grayish blue violet. In a peer-reviewed article in the spring 2009 edition of Gems & Gemology, the GIA noted that the Argyle mine is the world’s only known source of type IaB hydrogen- and nitrogen-rich diamonds colored gray to blue to violet. The article also noted that the more violet-hued stones in this range are colored by nickel defects.

    Rio Tinto said the Argyle Violet has a clarity of SI1.

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