Synthetic diamond manufacturer Ada Diamonds recently announced the discovery, much to the bemusement of at least one industry commentator.
“Ada Diamonds, the world's leading luxury purveyor of laboratory-grown diamonds, recently discovered a number of undisclosed mined diamonds mixed into multiple parcels of laboratory-grown melee diamonds, ranging from 0.01 carats to 0.06 carats,” a company statement read.
It added: “The discovery, in two separate batches, was subsequently confirmed by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).”
According to the statement, the natural diamonds were removed and the business had since introduced improved screening methods to prevent a similar situation from occurring.
Ada Diamonds co-founder and CEO Jason Payne said it was a priority that the business’ supply of synthetic diamonds remained “untainted” so consumers could purchase “conflict-free” diamonds with confidence.
"We look forward to collaborating with GIA, the Diamond Producers Association (DPA), and the International Grown Diamond Association (IGDA) to ensure that our supply chains continue to exclude unsustainably mined diamonds," Payne said.
Industry reactions
The announcement caught the attention of Robert Bates, news director of industry trade publication JCK, who documented his thoughts in an industry commentary.
Bates’ article stated it was a little hard to take the release seriously and he was unconvinced there wasn’t a certain amount of trolling with the release.
“There have been numerous documented cases of the opposite – undisclosed man-made diamonds being passed off as naturals. There is a good reason for that: Since non-mined diamonds typically sell for less than naturals, there is an economic incentive to disguise one as the other. There is little incentive to do the reverse. That would be a pretty inept criminal activity,” Bates wrote.
“In addition, while it’s obviously wrong to misrepresent any stone, a mined diamond does not legally have to be disclosed, like a synthetic does. That’s because, under the Federal Trade Commission Guides, a diamond is assumed to be from the Earth,” he added.
According to the JCK article, Payne and co-founder Lindsay Reinsmith insisted the release “was no joke”.
“[The release was] not tongue in cheek at all,” Payne said. “We offer our clients a guarantee that they are only purchasing lab-grown diamonds. Having undisclosed mined diamonds causes the same reputation risk for us [as the reverse.]”
Further, the Ada Diamonds release stated: “Concerns of such fraudulent activity are on the rise as consumer demand for laboratory grown diamonds increases and demand for traditional Earth-extracted diamond jewellery stagnates.”
Ada Diamonds was established in 2015 and is said to provide an “ecologically and socially superior alternative” to natural diamonds.
Jeweller contacted Ada Diamonds for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.
To read the JCK article, click here.
More reading:
GIA releases synthetics detector for diamond jewellery
GIA ‘significant’ synthetics discovery
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GIA releases synthetics detector for diamond jewellery
GIA releases melee screening to trade
Don’t hate man-made diamonds
Synthetic diamond spotlight: what does the Aussie industry think?
Synthetic diamond spotlight: part 2