Australia's 2nd Largest Diamond Mine Back in Business

A reconstituted diamond company has made good on its word to jump-start Australia's second-largest diamond mine, Yahoo News reports. After Merlin Diamonds managing director Joseph Gutnick vowed in June to bring the Merlin diamond mine back online after a decade-long hiatus, the firm has done so, beginning to extract ore from the Northern Territory asset today, September 16.

The 7.2 million carats believed to be under the ground at Merlin make it second only to Rio Tinto's Argyle mine in size, in Australia. Gutnick is predicting that mining operations at the mine will continue for 15 years, if they stick to their plan to produce a quarter of a million carats of rough diamonds every year.

In 2002, the largest diamond ever discovered on the Australian continent, the 104.73-carat Gungulinya-Bungina, was unearthed at the Merlin project, according to Yahoo News.

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