The Argyle Pink Diamonds Tender

What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of fancy color diamonds?

If you are like most people, I’m pretty sure you willing be thinking about vivid pink diamonds and the beautiful hue they exhibit.

Although diamonds can exist in almost any color hue imaginable, there’s something extremely special about pink diamonds that make them stand out and highly sought after. It’s no wonder that pink diamonds often find themselves in the limelight of record breaking auctions.

In today’s blog post, I’m going to talk about a very specialized niche market in the industry – the Argyle pink diamonds tender.

Where Do Natural Pink Diamonds Come From?

The vast majority of natural pink diamonds come from Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine in Australia.

Here’s an interesting fact: although the Argyle mine is one of the largest producer in the world by volume, the majority of their rough diamonds do not meet gem-quality standards.

What really propels the Argyle mine to international recognition is the small bounty of exceptional pink diamonds in their annual production. To give you an idea of how rare these diamonds are, the Argyle mine single-handedly accounts for 90% of the entire world’s supply!

Through the help of careful branding and marketing campaigns, the Argyle mine has become one of the most coveted sources for pink diamonds. Each of the Argyle stones comes with its own Argyle certificate and unique Argyle laser inscription that is found on the diamond’s girdle.

Because there is such a strong demand for these stones, the prices can often hit mind-boggling figures.

Sales Channel for Prized Pink Diamonds – Argyle Tender

The Argyle mine sells their pink goods to a number of diamond and jewelry companies across the world, but saves their best stones for an exclusive annual event. Every year, the Argyle mine proudly presents the Pink Diamond Tender, where they showcase the finest diamonds they found.

The 2016 diamond tender included some of the rarest stones Argyle has ever offered in its history. It was called the “Chroma Collection” and compromised of 63 stones in total. While the annual event is called the Pink Diamond Tender, pink stones are not the only colors showcased.

Some of the rarest pieces in this year’s collection were the Argyle Violet, which has an astonishing weight of 2.83 carats. It was one of the largest stones ever sold at the exclusive tender. Another noteworthy diamond was the Argyle Ultra which weighed in at 1.11 carats and featured a violet hue.

The 2016 Argyle Tender also included four red diamonds, with the Argyle Aria being a huge 1.09 carat fancy red oval diamond. Lastly, they also offered the first internally flawless Argyle Tender stone in over 20 years!

Here’s how the bidding in Argyle Tender works. Unlike other auctions, the bidders have no idea of what others are bidding on for the same stones. Bidders are only allowed to submit a single bid and he who offers the highest bid is the winner.

The violet Argyle diamond included in the 2016 Tender

Demand for Argyle Diamonds

Pink diamonds have never been in higher demand. Ever since Argyle’s surface mining operations ceased and begun development for their underground mining project, these exceptional stones are getting scarcer than ever.

It was only until recently in 2015 that the $2.2 billion dollar expansion for Argyle’s underground project was completed and the lifespan of the mine was extended. Even so, this current mining project is set to be open only until 2020. Beyond that, we will expect to see a huge decline in the supply of pink diamonds with rising demand.

Where to Buy Argyle Pink Diamonds?

Needless to say, you can’t just find Argyle stones at any jewelry shop or get any jeweler to source for a tendered diamond. It’s almost unheard of given the extremely limited supply and the expertise required to deal with these goods.

However, one company I work very closely with happens to specialize in these goods.

Leibish and Co. is an honored participant of the invitation-only tender. And in the past years, they have won numerous stones from the tender.

Last year, Leibish won an impressive 26 stones from the tender. This year, I was thrilled to hear that they had won the first Internally Flawless pink diamond offered in over 20 years!

Leibish and Co.’s 0.71ct Internally Flawless Fancy Intense Pink Argyle Diamond

The company currently has 40 Argyle Tender stones available in their inventory. They also hold an amazing collection of over 130 Argyle diamond and offer a wide range of Argyle jewelry.

Either way, if you are in the market for a truly exceptional piece, get in touch with Leibish. If you have any questions about Argyle diamonds, please feel free to reach out at paul [at] beyond4cs.com.

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