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 (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

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 which works in over 75 countries across Africa, the Americas, and Asia to advance children’s rights and equality for girls. Its focus is on child protection, education, child par ...

. 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 Brighton Girls, formerly Brighton and Hove High School, is an independent day school for girls aged 4 to 18 in the city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. Brighton Girls GDST is ISI rated ‘Excellent’. The school was founded in 1876 ...

Career

After graduating in

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

from the

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

, she made her way to

Perth, Western Australia Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, with support from her family. Within a week she got a job with a mining company called

Tanganyika Holdings Tanganyika may refer to: Places * Tanganyika Territory (1916–1961), a former British territory which preceded the sovereign state * Tanganyika (1961–1964), a sovereign state, comprising the mainland part of present-day Tanzania * Tanzania Main ...

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 acces ...

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. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...

s. A joint venture was set up with CRA Exploration 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 that drained into

Lake Argyle Lake Argyle is Western Australia's largest and Australia's second largest freshwater man-made reservoir by volume. The reservoir is part of the Ord River Irrigation Scheme and is located near the East Kimberley town of Kununurra. The lake f ...

. 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. 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 ...

, in a remote part of Western Australia.

References

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