How to identify real or fake diamonds

Diamonds obtained from fake and irresponsible sources are eroding confidence in the diamond industry and bringing business to a standstill.

The question is, can new technologies like laser printing and blockchain restore confidence in diamonds among the skeptical public?

Recently, a suspicious diamond was brought to a laboratory in Carlsbad, California, located between Los Angeles and San Diego.

The outer surface of the diamond, called the diamond’s ‘girdle’, had a small chip on it that contained a security code released in 2015.

But the font of this code was different from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) font. A real diamond is formed naturally while it was created in a laboratory.

“We rarely encounter this kind of deception,” said Christopher Brading and Troy Arden of the Carlsbad Laboratory.

Carlsbad is the headquarters of the GIA, a private organization that tests diamonds and awards them quality certificates.

These provide diamonds with a report number that is laser engraved onto the diamond, but there are some problems with this method.

“The number can be easily removed by just polishing, as well as someone else’s serial number,” says Andrew Rimmer, chief executive of Opsidia, an Oxford University-affiliated company.

That’s why Rumer is working on lasers that can write security codes below the diamond’s surface and make the code permanent inside the diamond.

The diamond business is a very large in volume and very profitable business.

About 27 tons, or 133 million carats, of rough diamonds are mined each year, with a total value of about $15 billion to $16 billion, according to Bain & Company, a Boston consulting firm.

About half of these mined diamonds come from Africa where some countries like South Africa and Botswana have clear laws regarding diamond mining.

But Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is accused of funding the country’s secret police with money from diamond exports.

Three Russian journalists were killed last year as they were investigating ties between Russia and militants in the Central African Republic who sell diamonds to fund their battles.

Synthetic diamonds are also a problem for the industry. Advertisements have surfaced on Chinese e-commerce website Alibaba that tout the diamonds as natural and claim to have documentation of their authenticity.

Such concerns have dampened diamond sales in 2019. In response to these circumstances, many individuals associated with the diamond industry are working on using blockchain technology.

This is a computerized account that cannot be changed. From the quarry to the jeweler’s shop, this account can be used to keep the details of these precious stones.

An example of this is Australia’s Everledger and the De Beers company’s blockchain called ‘Tracer’. Last year, Russia’s leading diamond miner El Rusa announced that they would be joining Tracer’s platform.

“It will be possible to give buyers the whole history of a diamond from the time it was taken out of the mine,” says Eugenia Kuzenko of the El Rossa company.

“At the same time, we can build many apps on the blockchain,” says Jim Duffy, Tracer’s chief executive.

“The most difficult step was for the diamond manufacturers to build robots that they could use to scan the diamonds at scale, and to develop the algorithms that could identify the diamonds,” says Jim Duffy.

“De Beers has also launched a program called Gemfair, which tracks small-scale diamond producers in Africa,” says Mitchley Brown, Tracer’s partner relations specialist.

“The program started with artisanal and small-scale diamond miners in the African country of Sierra Leone,” she says. The program helps in keeping a record of the GPS location of each diamond found, which is then placed in a QR-coded bag that cannot be altered.

The adoption of blockchain technology in the diamond industry is on the rise. Another proof of this is that Canadian mining company Lucara Diamond bought a blockchain business called Clara last year.

“As soon as they come out of the mine, the diamonds will be scanned and put on the blockchain,” says Jon Armstrong, vice president of technology at Lucara.

“Putting all diamond information on the blockchain is a very secure way to store information,” says Opsidia’s Rumer. But despite all this you have to be sure that the diamond is actually what it is being shown.

So, of course you may be wondering how you can write a security code inside a diamond that is permanent and cannot be changed.

The answer will be difficult. Diamond has a very high ability to reflect light.

“Wherever you want to point the laser, it usually goes somewhere else,” says Rimmer.

Engineers at Oxford were researching how to get the clearest view from the telescope, taking into account the fluctuations of the weather. And it turns out that his results also apply to targeting smaller targets with lasers.

Marks as small as 0.15 mm below the surface of the diamond can be made as small as a thousandth of a millimeter, and the process can be completed in just a trillionth of a second. This high-speed laser beam prevents the diamond from heating up.

A mark so small cannot be seen even with the convex lens of an atomizer. For this you need a powerful microscope.

These are extremely small so it is not necessary to have them on the outer bezel as this part is hidden when the diamond is set in the gem. But they can be placed around the top surface or crown where they can be read.

Opsidia has sold its first machines to De Beers.

Once you’re able to write inside diamonds, “you can write on electrical circuits, which leads you to scientific devices and eventually quantum computing,” says Rumer.

Trust in the authenticity and provenance of diamonds is essential to keep an increasingly skeptical public willing to buy.

Ajay Anand, founder of New York-based RearCart, has built a platform that collects data on diamonds from all kinds of traders, big and small.

He said that with the help of Diamonds, machine learning can help the process and determine the prices.

Ajay Anand said that there are 30 to 40 ways to determine the value of diamonds.

“We collect the largest data sets and our algorithms use them to estimate the value of diamonds very accurately.”

People connected to the diamond industry say that this new technology will ensure that the demand for diamonds never goes down. .