A GIA spokesperson confirmed to Jeweller that almost one third of the melee diamonds in a parcel submitted to the organisation’s Melee Analysis Service in India were synthetic.
Of the 323 diamonds ranging in size from 0.014 to 0.015 carats, 101 were chemical vapour disposition (CVD) synthetic stones.
GIA director of research and development Wuyi Wang told Rapaport Group’s diamonds.net – which appeared to have first reported on the incident – that the GIA regularly identified small quantities of undisclosed synthetic melee diamonds in parcels submitted for analysis.
However, he stated this was the first time “such a significant percentage” of CVD melee mixed with natural melee had been found.
When asked to address concerns of whether this type of fraudulent activity was on the rise at a recent industry event, Wang reportedly commented, “Production has largely been focused on high pressure-high temperature (HPHT) synthetics; you don’t see a lot of CVD melee in the market.”
Melee in focus
As previously reported by Jeweller, the GIA introduced its Melee Analysis Service in December 2016 in an attempt to address concerns about undisclosed synthetic and treated melee diamonds.
According to the GIA, until then, it had not been possible to screen melee-sized stones for synthetic origins due to their small size and high quantities.
Commenting on the prevalence of undisclosed synthetic melee diamonds detected locally, Bill Sechos, director of one of Australia’s major diamond grading laboratories, Gem Studies Laboratory, said: “While we have had a few more melee parcels submitted for testing, in our experience we haven’t found an increase in undisclosed synthetic melee diamonds.”
The GIA spokesperson declined to comment on further details regarding who submitted the parcel and what had transpired since the discovery.
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