The latter now appears to be a growing area of concern with instances of the undisclosed mixing of synthetic and natural diamonds, or attempts to pass synthetics off as natural, increasing around the world.
It’s easy for the Australian market to be lulled into a false sense of security. Given our remote location and the fact the local industry is so small in comparison to other international markets, it’s possible to believe we might not see any of the new synthetic diamonds for some time; however, I urge you to think again.
Synthetic diamonds – as opposed to imitations such as cubic zirconia and moissanite – are not a new thing and have been manufactured since the 1950s. What is new is that current technology allows for the creation of large crystals that can be cut into stones big enough to be used in jewellery. The largest submitted thus far for laboratory identification was a 2.11-carat marquise.
Both colourless and coloured diamonds are being manufactured in this way and they are, believe it or not, starting to infiltrate our local marketplace. At the Gem Studies Laboratory (GSL), we recently received a small parcel of fancy yellow diamonds that were identified as synthetic (they were not disclosed as being so).
This was the first time we had encountered such an incident. The concerning part is that the client had submitted the five stones, sized from 20 points to 35 points, for colour treatment testing and hadn’t even considered that they might have been created in a laboratory.
Naturally, the customer was surprised and took the diamonds back immediately to the original overseas supplier. While we do not know where the stones came from – origin of manufacture cannot be established from the properties present in synthetics – we do know that the vast majority of diamond imports are sourced in India. That said, one wouldn’t want to assume as synthetics have infiltrated all the diamond cutting and trading centres around the world.
In an ideal situation every diamond should be checked; however, the reality is that the margins are so small in the diamond industry that the cost of checking every stone that is imported into the country is prohibitive, especially when considering melee. The cost of testing, and the cost of the new (much-trumpeted) GIA detector, is also so high as to only be useful in large volume situations.
Unfortunately, it’s not easy for a jewellery retailer to detect a synthetic diamond even if they’re equipped with a microscope, ultraviolet and other gemmological equipment. You see, these stones present the same as natural diamonds because they are actually diamonds.
The identification of lab-created diamonds is bound to become a more troublesome issue in the near future so now is the perfect time to get preparations under way. It would be great to have industry funding for a couple of sophisticated identification devices to be located in a centrally-endorsed and well-accepted testing laboratory such as GSL – we are endorsed by the Gemmological Association of Australia and work in close conjunction with the JAA on many cases where an independent opinion is sought for settlement of disputes.
The sophisticated instruments that test for synthetic diamonds can also be used to identify modern treatments used to improve the colour of diamonds. This is another area of concern whereby treatments are used to turn the colour of common brown stones into D, E and F grade white stones or used to create fancy colours. Like synthetics, proving that a diamond has been subjected to such treatments is beyond the scope of the standard equipment that a jeweller or gemmologist may have at their disposal.
For this reason, these stones are now starting to creep into the Australian marketplace and, as time goes by, their prevalence will presumably only increase.
While the above issues are arguably much more prominent in larger overseas markets, it would be a mistake to assume that the local industry is a safe retreat. The good news is that such occurrences are rare at the moment so let’s use this time to become more educated and make the necessary investments to ensure we’re ready for combat.
Name: Bill Sechos
Company: Gem Studies Laboratory Australia
Position: director
Location: Sydney, New South Wales
Years in industry: more than 35 years