Argyle Pink Diamonds Five Years After the Mine Closed: What Has Changed

By the Byrex Gems team, Toronto · Published 21 October 2026

Rio Tinto closed Argyle in November 2020, held its last tenders in 2021 and 2025, and in October 2026 passed the brand and remaining stones to Boodles. Here is how inscriptions, Argyle codes and GIA reports work together, and what the closure means for supply.

Five years after Rio Tinto ended production at the Argyle mine in Western Australia on 3 November 2020, Argyle pink diamonds are a closed pool. No new rough has been cut since, the last tenders were held in 2021 and 2025, and on 1 October 2026 Rio Tinto transferred the Argyle Pink Diamonds brand, its trademarks and the last remaining inventory to the British jeweller Boodles. Stones already in the market still carry their Argyle inscriptions and documents, and the brand's Diamond Check service still confirms inscription numbers against its records. For the trade, the questions are now verification and supply.

The closure and the last tenders

Argyle was the only mine to produce pink diamonds in commercial quantity, and Rio Tinto states that it supplied more than 90 per cent of the world's pinks. Production stopped on 3 November 2020 (Rio Tinto, 1 October 2026). The 2021 Argyle Pink Diamonds Tender, the last of the annual tenders that began in 1984, offered 70 diamonds weighing 81.63 carats, a little over one carat each on average, and Rio Tinto reported record results for it (Jeweller Magazine).

The final sale of mine stock came in October 2025 as the last Beyond Rare tender, Into the Light: 52 lots totalling 45.44 carats: six headline lots, seven curated sets and 39 single diamonds. The Argyle stones were one GIA Fancy Red, 12 GIA Fancy Violet and 76 GIA Fancy Pink, Fancy Purple-Pink and Fancy Purplish Pink diamonds. Bids closed on 20 October 2025 (Rio Tinto, 19 September 2025).

From Icon Partners to Boodles

After the closure Rio Tinto kept the brand running as a fancy colour diamond specialist. In June 2022 it launched an Icon Partner programme, licensing selected jewellers to use the Argyle name for remaining polished inventory and limited editions, alongside its Authorised Partner and Atelier network, whose licences were expected to end in December 2026 (Jeweller Magazine).

On 1 October 2026 Rio Tinto announced that the brand had passed to Boodles, a family-owned British jeweller. The transfer covers the trademarks, the website and digital marketing assets, and what Rio Tinto called the last remaining Argyle pink diamond inventory. Neither the price nor the number of stones was disclosed. Boodles plans to build its 2027 High Jewellery collection around the stones, and its managing director, Jody Wainwright, has suggested there are enough for a slow release over about a decade (Jeweller Magazine).

For dealers, the last primary-source stones will arrive as Boodles jewellery, not tender lots. Everything else trades on the secondary market, where the brand says it cannot give chain-of-custody assurances for stones sold by third parties outside its channels (Argyle Pink Diamonds FAQ).

How Argyle grading sits beside a GIA report

Argyle graded its production with its own system. Three hue groups carry the codes PP (purplish pink), P (pink) and PR (pink rose), each followed by a number from 1 to 9 where 1 is the most intense colour and 9 the lightest. PC (pink champagne) covers brown diamonds with a pink secondary colour, graded PC1 to PC3 from light to dark, BL1 to BL3 covers the blue-violet stones, and Red is the rarest category. It has more colour steps than GIA's scale and does not correlate neatly with GIA grades (Jewellery Business).

GIA grades pink diamonds on its own scale from Faint to Fancy Deep, with Fancy Intense and Fancy Vivid the strongest grades, records secondary hues such as purplish or brownish, and states on its coloured diamond reports whether the colour origin is natural or treated (GIA). The Argyle document ties a stone to the mine through its lot number; the GIA report gives an independent colour grade and confirms that the colour is natural. An Argyle pink diamond should have both.

Inscriptions, lot numbers and what to check

Argyle began laser-inscribing its pink diamonds in January 2005 at 0.20 carats and above; the threshold fell to 0.15 carats in January 2009 and to 0.08 carats in December 2016. Each inscribed stone received a unique lot number on the girdle, readable at 10x magnification, and a Gem Identification and Authenticity Document meant to follow it through every sale; duplicates are no longer issued (Argyle Pink Diamonds FAQ).

Diamond Check lets anyone enter an inscription number and confirm that it matches a record in the Argyle database. Since January 2024 a separate Gem Analysis Service, run by an external laboratory, can examine an uninscribed pink, red, blue or violet diamond for Argyle-like characteristics and, where they are found, issue a Gem Analysis Report, which the brand describes as a different form of authentication from a chain-of-custody certificate (Argyle Pink Diamonds FAQ).

Find the inscription on the girdle under magnification and match it to the lot number on the Argyle document.
Ask for a GIA report and check that weight, shape and measurements agree with the Argyle document and the stone in hand.
Confirm that the GIA report records natural colour origin.
Treat a Gem Analysis Report as an opinion on Argyle-like characteristics, not as a chain-of-custody record.
Expect SI or I clarity; colour carries most of the value in Argyle pinks.

Prices and auction results since the closure

Published figures point to steady pricing for natural pinks as a category. The Fancy Color Research Foundation's index for the second quarter of 2026 slipped 0.1 per cent overall, but pink was the strongest category at plus 0.1 per cent, and the index has risen 202.1 per cent since 2005 (JCK). It covers fancy colour diamonds broadly, not Argyle alone.

At auction the headline result since the closure is a red. The Argyle Phoenix, a 1.56 carat round brilliant Fancy Red, sold at Phillips in Geneva in May 2024 for CHF 3.8 million, almost US$4.2 million or about US$2.7 million per carat, more than double its estimate and a record for a fancy red diamond in total and per carat (JCK).

Results at the smaller end have been selective. In August 2024 First State Auctions in Sydney offered a 0.94 carat radiant Fancy Intense Pink, VS1, from the 2021 tender, with an estimate of A$700,000 to A$800,000. It went unsold. In the same sale a 1.14 carat emerald-cut PC2 with an Argyle certificate sold for A$30,500 and a 0.50 carat radiant 4PR for A$22,500, while other Argyle-documented lots were passed (National Jeweler). Paper alone does not set the price.

Matched small goods and pinks from other sources

Argyle pinks were mostly small stones, and its lasting contribution to jewellery was calibrated goods for pavé, halos and matched pairs. With the remaining inventory reserved for Boodles' own collection, matched pairs and layouts of certified Argyle pinks must be assembled from existing dealer stocks and the secondary market, and a matched run in one hue group and intensity grade takes longer to complete each year.

Natural pinks do come from elsewhere. GIA notes finds in Brazil, Russia and Africa, including Tanzania's Williamson mine, and the Eternal Pink was cut from rough mined in Botswana (GIA). They are graded on the GIA scale like any other fancy colour diamond, but carry no Argyle inscription, and a standard GIA report does not name the mine. For Argyle provenance, the inscription and the document are the only route. For a fine natural pink diamond at a given GIA grade, the field is wider, and our fancy colour diamonds guide explains how the grades compare.

Argyle pink diamonds from Byrex Gems

Byrex Gems has served the jewellery trade from Toronto since 1988, and more than seven thousand jewellers, designers and dealers have bought from us. Many of our Argyle pink diamonds and other stones carry reports from GIA and other leading laboratories, and every stone is filmed in our office, unedited, so what you see is what arrives. Approved trade buyers see prices online through Stone Search.

A message on WhatsApp at +1 (437) 450-3786 is answered within hours, and an email to info@byrex.com the same day, seven days a week. What is listed is a part of what we hold, more is kept in the vault, and what we do not hold we can source through our offices worldwide. Private viewings are by appointment in Toronto, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Dubai.