Laboratory grown diamonds – Page 3 – The Diamond Certification Laboratory of Australia (DCLA)

Largest ever CVD laboratory-grown diamond hailed a “remarkable achievement”

The International Gemological Institute’s (IGI) Hong Kong laboratory has certified the largest chemical vapor deposition (CVD) laboratory-grown diamond received to date.

With a finished weight of 12.75 carats, this collection-quality man-made gemstone was fashioned from a 46.20 carat CVD-grown rough crystal.

According to its creator, Shanghai Zhengshi Technology, it is the largest CVD lab-grown diamond ever produced.

“For the past 15 years, IGI has been at the forefront of lab-grown certification and education,” stated IGI CEO, Roland Lorie. “With this milestone, the Institute continues to establish itself as the prominent leader in the industry and opens the door for future opportunities to exceed current gemological standards.”

IGI gemologists confirmed the 12.75ct stone was Type IIa, giving it exceptional chemical purity and transparency, with VVS2 clarity, F color, and triple-excellent marks in cut-quality and finish.

Following detailed scientific analysis, the laboratory substantiated that the stone had not undergone any post-growth treatments, so it can be categorised as a pure CVD diamond.

“A laboratory-grown diamond of this carat weight, with such a high clarity and color grade, is a remarkable achievement in CVD cultivated diamond technology,” said IGI Hong Kong managing director, Bob Van Es. “As the industry leader in the certification of laboratory-grown diamonds, IGI will continue to follow these new developments closely.”

This news comes only three months after the IGI analysed the Guinness World Record-holding biggest black lab-grown diamond.

Source: professionaljeweller

Blue Nile to Sell Lightbox Lab-Grown Diamonds

Blue Nile has launched an exclusive line of Lightbox lab-grown diamond jewelry, its first foray into synthetics in its 21-year history.

De Beers-owned Lightbox seemed like the obvious choice for a partner, given the alignment of the two companies’ perspectives, Blue Nile CEO Sean Kell told Rapaport News Thursday.

“We’ve been watching the lab-grown diamond market for some time. We think both natural diamonds and lab-grown diamonds have a place in the market,” he noted. “When we first discussed stepping into the lab-grown space, Lightbox was the only brand partner that came to mind.”

The online jeweler’s partnership with the lab-grown brand is an effort to offer a greater range of products to its customers.

“The launch of the Blue Nile Lightbox collection…now adds even more variety, quality and value for our customers as we head into the new year,” Kell said. “[This] will further expand and transform [our] product assortment to meet the needs of evolving consumers in the jewelry space.”

The collection will feature new and exclusive styles of jewelry, including earring, pendants, bracelets and rings, set with white, blue or pink lab-grown diamonds in 14-karat white or yellow gold. The pieces, which range from $600 to $1,750, will be available both online and in Blue Nile’s newly launched and soon-to-open showrooms, Kell noted.

While Blue Nile’s Lightbox collection will feature fashion jewelry, it will not include engagement rings, for now.

“At this time we do not [plan to carry them],” Kell added. “We think of lab-grown diamonds versus natural diamonds as two separate categories. Our belief is consumers will continue to select natural diamonds for engagement and significant milestones, whereas lab-grown diamonds…will give shoppers an opportunity to expand their jewelry box with…jewelry they can wear every day.”

Lightbox opens its doors

The launch coincides with the debut of Lightbox’s new 60,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Gresham, Oregon. The synthetics maker began production at the facility during the summer, as construction was being completed, and plans to ramp up output at the $94 million plant to reach 200,000 carats annually.

“Manufacturing lab-grown diamonds in the US was a goal from the beginning,” said Lightbox CEO Steve Coe. “With this facility and our…partnership with Blue Nile, we have an incredible opportunity to grow our business, improve consumer education and further establish Lightbox as the leading lab-grown diamond jewelry brand.”

Lightbox first dipped its toe in the retail space through partnerships with Bloomingdale’s and Reeds Jewelers. Earlier this month, the company announced an expansion to 10 independent retail jewelers in the US and Canada, a move it believes will enable it to gain insight into different audience segments, and learn how they shop and which products appeal to them most.

While the De Beers brand is currently focused on retail partnerships, Coe told Rapaport News he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of “one or two” self-operated stores “at some point.”

The company is also looking to expand its product offering, including creating larger sizes for its lab-grown diamonds, which currently weigh up to 1 carat.

“The biggest priority for us in 2021 is exploring the opportunity to go to larger sizes,” Coe noted. “That is something we are working on — going up to 2 carats.”

Meanwhile, the lab-grown brand is also looking to extend its color range beyond white, blue and pink.

“Our scientists are already looking at other color options, and in the lab at least, we’ve made yellows, greens, violets and other shades,” Coe added. “But that’s more likely in the 2022, 2023 timeframe, probably.”

Source: Diamonds.net

GIA Unveils New Lab-Grown Reports

The new GIA lab-grown diamond reports. (GIA)

The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has launched its new grading reports for lab-grown diamonds, offering an updated look and format.

The new documents, branded “LGDR by GIA,” come in digital-only form and use specific color and clarity scores rather than the descriptive terms and ranges that appeared in its previous reports, the organization said Tuesday.

“The evolution of GIA’s reports for laboratory-grown diamonds is fully aligned with our mission to protect all consumers,” said Susan Jacques, GIA president and CEO. “Everyone who purchases gemstone jewelry — whether natural or laboratory-grown — expects and deserves the information, confidence and protection that come with a GIA report.”

The offering includes two different Laboratory-Grown Diamond Reports for colorless synthetic diamonds — a standard report and a dossier — and two for colored diamonds: one with plot diagrams and one without.

Notably, the GIA avoids calling the documents “grading reports” — a term it reserves for natural diamonds. Earlier this week, the World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO) recommended that laboratories use that term only for natural stones and instead call synthetics reports “Laboratory-Grown Diamond Product Specifications,” arguing that the concept of grading implies rarity.

“The color and clarity specifications for laboratory-grown diamonds are described on the same scale as GIA grading reports for natural diamonds, but that does not correlate to nature’s continuum of rarity,” the GIA noted.

The reports state that a stone was created by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or High Pressure-High Temperature (HPHT) and that it may include post-growth treatments to change the color. Each report also comes with a QR code linking to a custom page on GIA’s website with information about lab-grown diamonds.

Each stone will also receive a laser inscription with the report number and the words “laboratory-grown,” unless another acceptable term already appears on the girdle.

Source: Diamonds.net

De Beers Adds Grading Specs for Lightbox

Lightbox has added grading information for its synthetic white diamonds in an effort by the De Beers brand to bring further transparency to the lab-grown sector.

The company will provide technical specifications showing the minimum quality of its stones across cut, color, clarity and carat weight, Lightbox said Monday. It will include these descriptions with each white lab-grown diamond it sells, but will not grade each stone individually. The specifications are based on internationally recognized grading standards, the De Beers-owned company noted.

“This new feature is just one more way Lightbox can instill consumer confidence,” the company added.

An infographic with the information is also available on Lightbox’s website. Those specifications list its synthetic white diamonds to be “near colorless” or better, which the company defines as between G to J, meaning only a trained gemologist can detect a trace of color. The stones all have a minimum clarity of VS, and a cut of “very good.” The stones are still priced at $800 per carat.

Lightbox, which De Beers launched in 2018, does not currently intend to offer grading information for its blue or pink lab-grown diamonds.

Source: Diamonds.net

WD Sues Diamond Growers over CVD Patents

A 9.04-carat round brilliant produced by WD Lab Grown Diamonds in 2018 using chemical vapor deposition.

The companies behind WD Lab Grown Diamonds have filed three lawsuits against competitors, accusing them of infringing patents for diamond synthesis and treatment.

The Carnegie Institution of Washington, a science organization, and M7D Corporation, which trades as WD Lab Grown Diamonds, took action Thursday again six companies that produce or sell diamonds made using chemical vapor deposition (CVD).

One of the complaints targets Pure Grown Diamonds (PGD) and IIa Technologies, which produces CVD goods for PGD. A second filing is against Mahendra Brothers, a De Beers sightholder, and its affiliate, Fenix Diamonds. The third suit takes aim at Altr, another lab-grown supplier, and its owner, R.A. Riam.

Carnegie invented and patented a version of CVD, known as microwave-plasma CVD (MPCVD), that can create a purer diamond because it doesn’t involve electrodes, which often contaminate the product, according to the lawsuits. It also patented a method for enhancing a stone’s visual characteristics through heat treatment at high pressure and temperature. M7D holds the license to both patents, the three similar lawsuits continued.

“The existence of the patents…are well-known in the lab-grown diamond industry, and in particular are well-known by lab-grown diamond manufacturers, importers and sellers,” Carnegie and M7D claimed.

Carnegie and M7D are seeking damages and a judgment declaring that the six companies violated their patents. The companies were not available for comment Sunday.

Source: Diamonds.net

De Beers Issues Synthetics Guidelines

De Beers has provided its rough-diamond clients and Forevermark partners with guidelines on how to operate in the lab-grown market if they wish to continue tapping into its branding.

The mining company, which in 2018 forayed into gem-quality synthetics with the launch of its Lightbox brand, is demanding businesses make full disclosure about their product, segregate synthetics from their natural supply, and do not make unproven claims about either category. The “Statement of Principles” outlines the legal structures companies with lab-grown diamond units must have if they wish to use the sightholder logo, as well as the procedures and training they are required to implement to avoid contamination or misleading marketing.

While De Beers already had rules mandating disclosure and other best practices, the new principles “ensure there is no room for doubt” about how clients may use the sightholder logo, explained David Johnson, head of strategic communications for De Beers. Some of the rules form part of De Beers’ contract with clients, allowing the miner to penalize those who flout them, while others are only recommendations.

“We believe the principles within the document set out a responsible approach, and that they are important for ensuring people can make clear and informed choices about what they are buying,” Johnson added.

The document refers to lab-grown diamonds as “artificial” products that “do not have the same inherent, naturally occurring characteristics or enduring value” as natural diamonds. The miner continues to define diamonds as a natural mineral in line with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

De Beers sent the guidelines to clients earlier this month, as numerous sightholders have launched lab-grown businesses under separate entities and trading names.
The following is a summary of the guidelines:

De Beers customers may only use the sightholder license — including displaying the sightholder logo — for business entities that are exclusively natural-diamond businesses. Entities with both natural and lab-grown activities may not use the logo.
The miner recommends setting up distinct and independent businesses for any lab-grown diamond activities, with separate systems, processes and workforces.
The rules prohibit “false, misleading or unsubstantiated” claims about the enduring value of lab-grown diamonds, whether directed at other businesses or at consumers. They cannot state or imply that lab-grown diamonds have the “identical inherent value characteristics” as natural diamonds.
Similarly, unproven claims about the environmental benefits or ethical advantage of lab-grown diamonds over natural ones are forbidden.
Sellers must provide the buyer with full and unambiguous disclosure before the transaction is complete.
They’re also required to ensure segregation at all stages of the supply process, such as storage, cutting and polishing, packaging, and transportation. Ideally, suppliers should handle natural and lab-grown stones in separate sites.
De Beers customers must “take steps” to ensure full disclosure and segregation further along the supply chain, down to the consumer.
Clients must have protocols to identify and mitigate contamination risks, and train staff members on the “operational, commercial and reputational impacts” of lab-grown diamonds.
Preferably, companies should disclose the countries in which the synthetic diamond was grown, polished and made into jewelry, as well as the identity of the grower. De Beers says businesses should “strive” to declare this, though it’s not an absolute requirement.
Grading language must contain words that make it clear a stone is lab-grown.
Customers must follow relevant laws, regulations and best practices, such as the standards that the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the ISO have published.

Source: Diamonds.net

De Beers rough diamond sight grows to $575m

Anglo American’s De Beers the world’s largest rough diamond producer by value, sold $575 million worth of rough diamonds at the fifth sight of this year.

The value is a 6% increase from the $541m sight in the same period last year and 3.7% higher than the $554m sight last month.

De Beers has increased efforts in recent months to find a way to verify the source of diamonds and ensure they are not from conflict area where rough diamonds may have been used to finance violence.

Last month De beers announced it would start selling jewellery made with laboratory grown diamonds.

9ct. Synthetic Sets ‘World Record’

WD Laboratory Grown Diamonds has created what it claims to be the world’s largest known synthetic diamond made using chemical vapor deposition (CVD).

The ideal cut, round brilliant 9.04 carat, VS2 clarity stone broke the synthetic diamond producer’s own previous world record of 6 carats, the company said last week.

“No other CVD diamond manufacturer has come close to this size and quality,” Clive Hill, its founder and chairman, claimed. “But this is not an easy task, and we overcame significant hurdles that we’ll undoubtedly face and overcome again.”

WD Lab Grown Diamonds intends to work on producing even larger CVD synthetics, Hill added.

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Labs Refute Claims HPHT Escaping Detection

Major gemological laboratories have rebuffed claims that detection machines are failing to spot synthetic diamonds that have undergone irradiation.

In a trade alert last week, Diamond Services argued that the treatment, generally used to alter the color of a stone, can mask the phosphorescence effect when diamonds created using High Pressure-High Temperature (HPHT) undergo scanning at room temperature.

While detection machines can often identify HPHT diamonds because they phosphoresce — or glow — under ultra-violet light, certain devices fail to spot some of those stones that have been subject to irradiation, the Hong Kong-based diamond-technology company argued.

However, De Beers and the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) have denied the impact of such a phenomenon on their machines’ ability to sift out HPHT synthetics.

“The International Institute of Diamond Grading and Research (IIDGR) confirms that its instruments AMS2, SYNTHdetect, DiamondView and DiamondSure are all effective at screening HPHT synthetic material which has been irradiated and is tested at room temperature,” the De Beers-owned grading unit said in a statement last week.

“Any business using these devices can have full confidence that any such material will be detected without the need to undertake tests at different temperatures,” it added.

Meanwhile, although detection devices based on phosphorescence may not be able to detect some HPHT-grown irradiated synthetics, the GIA’s machines can spot them, the Carlsbad, California-headquartered laboratory stressed.

“The ability of the instruments that GIA uses to differentiate natural diamonds from HPHT and CVD [chemical vapor deposition]-grown synthetic diamonds, including the GIA iD100 gem-testing device and the GIA Melee Analysis Service, is not affected by irradiation treatment,” the GIA told Rapaport News.

Examining diamonds at the temperature of liquid nitrogen can be an extremely accurate method of detecting synthetics, while a technique called Raman spectroscopy is a simple way of spotting irradiated diamonds, according to Joseph Kuzi, founder and president of Diamond Services.

“Our latest findings indicate that the diamond and jewelry trades should show extra caution, but we do not claim that irradiated HPHT-grown synthetic diamonds are undetectable,” Kuzi said.

Source: Diamonds.net