Rio Tinto, one of the world’s biggest miners, recently said it plans to divest its diamond operations from everywhere due to their “non-core” nature. Except India, that is.

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He Australian iron ore mining giant is currently developing a high-quality diamond mine in the Bunder district of Madhya Pradesh.

In an announcement on March 27, Rio Tinto said the company has “begun a strategic review of its diamond business that will include exploring a range of options for potential divestment of its diamond interests.”

Rio Tinto operates three diamond mines, Argyle in Australia (100% owned), Diavik in Canada (60%), and Murowa in Zimbabwe (78%), as well as Bunder, an advanced diamonds project in India (100%).

While all the other three are operational diamond mines and brings in revenues of close to $727 million, the Indian asset is still under development, and looks like the company has not kept the Indian mine on the block.

“The Bunder project is very important to us and we will continue our work to define the best development options. We are delighted to receive in-principle approval from the governments of Madhya Pradesh and India and will continue to progress development of a detailed blueprint for the mine, along with the environmental approvals for mine planning,” said Niklesh Senapati, managing director, Rio Tinto India, in an email interaction.

A state support agreement with Madhya Pradesh was signed in October 2010. The agreement is a critical milestone and an endorsement of the mutual commitment we have with the government of Madhya Pradesh, he added in his replies.

According to company estimates, the diamond resource identified at Bunder is seven times richer than the Panna diamond mine operated by public sector miner NMDC, the only operating diamond mine in India.

The Bunder project will have a likely production rate at least 20 times more than Panna.