Maureen Muggeridge (13 August 1948 – 7 October 2010) was a British geologist best known for discovering the Argyle diamond deposit in the north of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

Early life and education

Muggeridge was born in Croydon; her father was Eric Muggeridge, the founder of the charity

Plan International Plan International is a development and humanitarian organisation based in the United Kingdom that works in over 80 countries across Africa, the Americas, and Asia, focusing on children’s rights. In 2024, Plan International reached 43 million ...

. She spent the majority of her childhood in Cameroon and was later sent back to England to a convent school in Sussex. Later, she became a day pupil at Brighton and Hove High School.

Career

After graduating in

Geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

from the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

, she made her way to

Perth, Western Australia Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, with support from her family. Within a week she got a job with a mining company called Tanganyika Holdings and was flying over the Outback searching for diamonds. Tanganyika Holdings was involved in a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

with other companies. In 1976, minerals were found which suggested the presence of

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of e ...

s. A joint venture was set up with

CRA Exploration CRA is an abbreviation for: Companies * Conestoga-Rovers & Associates, a consulting engineering firm in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada * Convenience Retail Asia, Hong Kong * Conzinc Riotinto of Australia * CRA International, a consultancy Credit r ...

which they called the Ashton Joint Venture. This was masterminded by Rees Towie, managing director of Northern Mining. In 1979, Maureen married Towie's son John, she became pregnant and discovered diamond samples in the flood plains surrounding Smoke Creek, a small stream in East

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...

that drained into

Lake Argyle Lake Argyle is Western Australia's largest and Australia's second largest Freshwater lake, freshwater man-made Reservoir (water), reservoir by volume. The reservoir is part of the Ord River (Kimberley)#Ord River Irrigation Scheme, Ord River Ir ...

. At the time word had got out that there might be diamonds and rival exploration teams were in the area. To put them off the scent, CRA put it about that Maureen had gone on maternity leave while, in fact, she was tracing the source of the diamonds to the headwaters of Smoke Creek and pegging out the boundaries of her

claim Claim may refer to: * Claim (legal) * Claim of Right Act 1689 * Claims-based identity * Claim (philosophy) * Land claim * A ''main contention'', see conclusion of law * Patent claim * The assertion of a proposition; see Douglas N. Walton * A ri ...

. This turned out to be the world's largest known diamond deposit, larger than all the rest put together. Today, these diamonds are among the world's rarest gems and the mine produces one-third of global output. Muggeridge received international recognition for papers on the applications of explosion-sampling techniques. She directed exploration for Moonstone Diamond Corporation in Perth and then set up her own Paramount Mining Corporation in 2002. It was floated on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2004. She died of a stroke while sampling for diamonds at

Napier Downs Napier Downs Station, commonly referred to as Napier Downs, is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the Kimberley region in Western Australia. Napier Downs is situated about east of Derby and north west of Fitzroy Crossing a ...

, in a remote part of Western Australia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muggeridge, Maureen 1948 births 2010 deaths British women geologists Alumni of the University of St Andrews 20th-century British women scientists 20th-century English women 20th-century English people