It was the anthills that confirmed their suspicions, glinting inexplicably under the harsh sun of the Australian outback. The geologists had explored the land for a decade, including surveys by helicopter, suspecting there might be something precious lurking under the barren, sunbaked earth. It took a closer look, though, to be sure: Trekking through the outback on foot, they squinted more closely at those sparkling flecks. They were diamonds, shards that the insects had inadvertently ferried to the surface from a deposit, or pipe, below.
What even that team, seasoned diamond hunters all, couldn’t have guessed then was the size of the seam they’d identified, a few miles south of Lake Argyle. When formal operations began in 1983, four years after the initial find, the diamonds from this single mine…
