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Rio Tinto to Offer 76 Diamonds in 2024 Beyond Rare Tender
The sales event, in its second year, features a selection of rare diamonds from the miner’s Argyle and Diavik diamond mines.
Rio Tinto will offer 48 lots comprising a total of 76 diamonds in its 2024 Beyond Rare Tender, set to take place in Geneva later this fall.
London—Rio Tinto has announced the details of its 2024 Beyond Rare Tender, revealing the collection of rare pink, red, violet, and yellow diamonds on offer in the sales event’s second year.
Titled “Color Awakened,” the upcoming tender will feature 48 lots Rio Tinto is calling the “Art Series 02” collection.
The sale includes a total of 76 diamonds weighing 39.44 carats, all sourced from the miner’s now-closed Argyle mine in Australia and its Diavik Diamond Mine in the Northwest Territories of Canada.
The sale is headlined by the “Old Masters,” the name Rio Tinto has given to a selection of seven round brilliant-cut pink and red diamonds sourced from the Argyle mine.
The stones range from 0.60 carats to 2.63 carats, and the group includes one fancy red diamond.
Alluvial mining began at Argyle, which is located in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, in 1983 and open-pit mining in 1985.
The mine went fully underground in 2013 and, over the years, produced 865 million carats of rough diamonds. It closed in 2020.
Each of the “Old Masters” was unearthed from the mine more than a decade ago, one as far back as 1987, Rio Tinto said.
The mining company said each diamond was retrieved from private vaults and handpicked for inclusion in the tender.
Offered alongside the “Old Masters,” there are 32 single lots of pink and violet Argyle diamonds, including one fancy purplish red diamond.
The tender will also feature nine curated diamond sets.
One of the sets includes a 2.47-carat fancy intense yellow diamond, while another has a 4.04-carat D-color diamond.
“Each diamond in the ‘Art Series 02’ is a beautiful story of esteemed provenance, careful custody, and transformation into rare works of art,” said Patrick Coppens, general manager of sales and marketing for Rio Tinto’s diamonds business.
“This curated collection of exceptional gems will be in strong demand by the world’s finest jewelers, collectors and diamond connoisseurs.”
Related stories will be right here …
Titled “Color Awakened,” the upcoming tender will feature 48 lots Rio Tinto is calling the “Art Series 02” collection.
The sale includes a total of 76 diamonds weighing 39.44 carats, all sourced from the miner’s now-closed Argyle mine in Australia and its Diavik Diamond Mine in the Northwest Territories of Canada.
The sale is headlined by the “Old Masters,” the name Rio Tinto has given to a selection of seven round brilliant-cut pink and red diamonds sourced from the Argyle mine.
The stones range from 0.60 carats to 2.63 carats, and the group includes one fancy red diamond.
Alluvial mining began at Argyle, which is located in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, in 1983 and open-pit mining in 1985.
The mine went fully underground in 2013 and, over the years, produced 865 million carats of rough diamonds. It closed in 2020.
Each of the “Old Masters” was unearthed from the mine more than a decade ago, one as far back as 1987, Rio Tinto said.
The mining company said each diamond was retrieved from private vaults and handpicked for inclusion in the tender.
Offered alongside the “Old Masters,” there are 32 single lots of pink and violet Argyle diamonds, including one fancy purplish red diamond.
The tender will also feature nine curated diamond sets.
One of the sets includes a 2.47-carat fancy intense yellow diamond, while another has a 4.04-carat D-color diamond.
“Each diamond in the ‘Art Series 02’ is a beautiful story of esteemed provenance, careful custody, and transformation into rare works of art,” said Patrick Coppens, general manager of sales and marketing for Rio Tinto’s diamonds business.
“This curated collection of exceptional gems will be in strong demand by the world’s finest jewelers, collectors and diamond connoisseurs.”
Rio Tinto launched the Beyond Rare Tender sales event in October 2023, offering the first collection of the Art Series, titled “Born of this World.”
The miner said it has a “small quantity” of polished inventory that it unearthed in the final months of mining at Argyle.
Over the next two to three years, Rio Tinto will use the diamonds for special projects and creative collaborations like the Beyond Rare Tender and the Icon Partner Program, which it launched in 2022, tapping jewelers to develop limited-edition pieces with the remaining stones.
At an invitation-only launch event in London for the upcoming 2024 Beyond Rare Tender, Chief Executive of Rio Tinto Minerals Sinead Kaufman said, “No other mining company in the world has custody of such a kaleidoscope of colored diamonds.
“Four years on from the closure of the Argyle mine, our Beyond Rare Tender platform is a testimony to the enduring prestige of the Argyle Pink Diamonds brand, the quality of production from our Diavik mine, and the ongoing demand for highly collectible natural diamonds.”
The lots will be showcased in London, Australia, Singapore, and Belgium.
Bids will close on Nov. 18.
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