Maureen T. Muggeridge

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.

Early life and education

Muggeridge was born in Croydon; her father was Eric Muggeridge, the founder of the charity Plan International. 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 from the University of St Andrews, she made her way to Perth, Western Australia, 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 with other companies.

In 1976, minerals were found which suggested the presence of diamonds. 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. 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. It was floated on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2004.

She died of a stroke while sampling for diamonds at Napier Downs, in a remote part of Western Australia.