As Rio Tinto's Argyle diamond mine in Australia enters what may very well be its final decade of operation, a jewelry and diamond industry historian says that this may lead to the inexorable increase in the value of pink diamonds, the Australian reports.



Vivienne Becker says that by the time that the Argyle mine's supply is extinguished, diamonds with a pink color may be considered as valuable as Faberge eggs, fetish objects for jewelry collectors. Becker maintains that the prospects of discovering another source of pink diamonds to fill the gap that will be left by Argyle's closure are "slim to impossible".



Due to their relative rarity, pink diamonds may sell for hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars per carat. About 90% of the world's supply of pink diamonds are harvested from the Argyle diamond mine in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia and the underground supply of the precious gems may last for only another ten years, according to the Australian.