Rio Tinto - Argyle Diamonds
| Site | Argyle Diamond Mine |
| Location | Kimberly region WA Australia |
| System | 3 instrument |
| Commissioned | 2005 |
Argyle currently operates an open pit mine and a processing plant 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The AK1 open pit is 2 kilometres long, 1 kilometre wide and covers an area of almost 300 hectares. The principal activity in the pit is the removal of overburden and collection of diamondiferous ore. Ore in the pit is broken by the use of explosives with each blast hole liberating about 3000 tonnes of rock.
Excavators capable of holding 45 tonnes load rock into haul trucks with an average 200 tonne capacity. These trucks transport diamond-bearing ore approximately 2.5 kilometres to a primary crusher to commence the diamond extraction process in the main recovery plant. The unwanted overburden is deposited on the perimeter of the pit and represents around six times the volume of the diamondiferous ore.
