Ellendale diamond mine
| Ellendale | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General information about the mine | |||
| Mining technology | Open pit | ||
| Information about the mining company | |||
| Operating company | Gem diamonds | ||
| Start of operation | 2002 | ||
| End of operation | 2015 | ||
| Funded raw materials | |||
| Degradation of | Diamonds | ||
| Diamonds | |||
| Chimney 4 | |||
| Chimney 9 | |||
| Geographical location | |||
| Coordinates | 17 ° 34 '3 " S , 124 ° 51' 14.4" E | ||
|
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| State | Western Australia | ||
| Country | Australia | ||
The Ellendale Diamond Mine was an Australian open-cast diamond mine . It is located about 2000 kilometers from Perth and 170 kilometers from Derby in Western Australia , Australia . The mine began operations in 2002 and is owned by the Kimberley Diamond Company , a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gem Diamonds Ltd., UK . With Rio Tinto, it is one of two companies that mine diamonds in Australia .
Kimberley Diamond has a 51% stake in Blina Diamonds NL , it is a company that deposit exploration operates and controls 1,500 km 2 around the Ellendale field that 50 recognized Lamproite vents and other Schwemmlandgebiete includes where there are diamonds.
The name Ellendale refers to a cattle breeding station located there, which has a huge area of land.
Emergence
The Ellendale diamonds are mainly stored in volcanic vents from Lamproit . Lamproit is a rock similar to kimberlite that is where most of the world's diamonds are extracted. The geology is similar to the Argyle diamond mine , which is also located in Western Australia.
There are 44 volcanic vents in the area of the Ellendale Diamond Mine and diamonds are mined in two of them, vent 4 and vent 9 .
Due to the high nitrogen content , the Ellendale diamonds are colored bright yellow. Ellendale accounts for 50% of the world trade in yellow diamonds. Only about 0.1 percent of Ellendale diamonds are yellow.
Mining operations
The Kimberley Diamond mining rights cover an area of 128 km 2 .
In the first five years, 9,766,000 carats were extracted from the chimney . Production of vent 4 , 15 km to the south, began in April 2006. In February 2007 it was announced that the facility at vent 4 can process 4.4 million tons of rock.
170 employees worked in the Ellendale mine, which were flown in from Broome and Derby in 14-day shifts .
In 2015, Kimberley Diamond announced that work in Ellendale would be temporarily suspended. Parts of the equipment were auctioned in July 2017, and mining had not been resumed since operations ceased in July 2015.
Web links
- Gem diamonds. In: gemdiamonds.com. Retrieved January 5, 2017 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Erin Parke: Rare yellow diamond mine Ellendale closes doors, workers raise wage concerns. In: abc.net.au. June 2, 2015, accessed January 5, 2017 .
- ↑ Auction of abandoned Ellendale mining plant. In: dmp.wa.gov.au. June 1, 2016, accessed January 5, 2017 .