Publish Year: - Title: January Outlook: Rough Diamond Supplies Up, Prices Down Abstract: Holiday retail diamond jewelry sales in the U.S. were spotty, but in positive territory overall, according to preliminary reports. Demand appeared to be sufficient to clear some of the inventory backlog that plagued the diamond trading centers the previous year. Photo by Eric Welch/GIA, courtesy Finell’s Jewelers

	De Beers ramped up its sales of rough diamonds to $540 million at its Jan. 18-22 sight and reportedly cut prices an average of 7%. The company cut sales to the lowest level in decades during the final quarter of 2015, while the trade grappled with softening prices and excess inventories.

	Fortunately, a respectable, if not exciting, holiday season helped reduce excess diamond inventories sitting in world diamond manufacturing centers. As the holidays drew near, dealers in the U.S. began to cite shortages of some goods – specifically light sizes (a few points under landmark carat weight i.e., 0.45-0.49 carats) and medium colors and clarities.

	Preliminary reports indicate that U.S. retail jewelry sales will be slightly up for the year by dollar volume. Sales volume will likely be 4% to 5% higher than the dollar figure compared to 2014, because prices for gold and diamonds declined 10% to15% during the year. These price declines enabled the major chains to engage in aggressive discounting during the season, without seriously compromising their bottom line.

	Signet Group reported its same store sale rose a strong 4.9%, for the eight-week season, with its Kay Jewelers division showing a 7% increase and its Jared stores up 9%. The company’s Zale division rose 2.3%.

	Aggressive discounting by its competition in a restrained consumer market caused Tiffany & Co.’s, same-store holiday sales to fall by 8% in North America. (Tiffany rarely runs discount promotions.) A strong U.S. dollar also contributed to the decline as tourist traffic, which accounts for a substantial percentage of the company’s New York sales, was down.

	Overall, Tiffany’s same-store sales were down 5%, though it maintained strong profit margins. A company statement said it expected no significant improvement this year.

	Centurion’s 2015 holiday season survey of luxury independents around the U.S. found generally positive, but mixed, results: 19.6% of respondents said their holiday sales grew significantly − more than 10% − over last year’s holiday. But an equal number saw declines of more than 10% over last year. In total, 58% of respondents were at least even or somewhat ahead of last year’s holiday sales figures, while 42% experienced a drop in holiday sales.

	Most of those who reported declines, however, blamed the absence of a few key sales in 2015, which spiked their numbers in 2014. The trend was toward larger numbers of lower ticket sales. Additionally, many do business in areas where oil and gas industries dominate their economies.

	CHINA’S RETAIL OUTLOOK

	The outlook for retail sales for Chinese New Year (Feb. 8) is looking gloomy as the country’s stock market appears to be headed for a severe slump.

	The region’s largest jewelry retailer, Chow Tai Fook, based in Hong Kong, reported that same-store-sales dropped 11% year-on-year in the third fiscal quarter that ended Dec. 31. Sales in Hong Kong and Macau dropped 20%, while income from the mainland was off 6%. Another Hong Kong-based jewelry chain, Luk Fook, reported that same-store-earnings plunged 26% in Hong Kong during the third quarter of 2015, compared to the previous year, with its mainland stores showing a decline of 10%. The company said sales of gem-set jewelry declined 27% in Hong Kong, but rose 2% in the mainland.

	Some analysts have suspected for a year or more that the government may have been trying to hide the fact that the country is in recession, not just experiencing slower growth. One indicator is that Chinese retail sales, including jewelry, have been in negative territory for some time. This is unlikely to improve because the Renminbi Yuan has resumed its decline against the U.S. dollar, making diamonds and gold more costly in local currency.

	While China’s slumping stock market has caused markets in the U.S. and Europe to decline in its wake, economists believe it is a short term reaction to the situation and not a reflection of economic conditions outside of the country.

	Diamond Rough

	On the diamond supply side, all eyes are focused on De Beers’ January sight. Its parent company, Anglo American, has taken a huge financial hit and as its biggest earner, De Beers is under heavy pressure to bring in revenue. The recovery of the diamond market, however, while real, remains very fragile. A large sight (if clients do not refuse the goods) or token price reductions that do not allow manufacturers to make a profit, could compromise the upturn or start a price/supply conflict with Alrosa and Rio Tinto, both of which have pressures of their own.

	De Beers did announce it would close its Snap Lake mine in northern Canada, which produced about 1.2 million carats last year. The mine ran into major cost overruns and has been unprofitable from the outset.

	At the same time, dissident shareholders of Dominion Diamond Company (owner of Ekati and partner in Diavik) have called on management to resign for failing to plot a growth strategy beyond its existing mines. The dissident group, which holds a 5% stake in the company, is also demanding representation on the board of directors. Two board members resigned from the company on Jan 5. It is unclear whether or not they were related to the shareholder action.

	Colored stone demand has been improving, but many primary dealers continue to hold out for prices that the trade deems unrealistically high. This dampened sales at the fall Hong Kong show, where it was obvious that Chinese buyers were no longer in the market in a big way. Many dealers have not yet absorbed that message. @topic:7


Publish Year: - Title: Begin with the End in Mind: Tips, Tools to Evaluate Diamond Rough Abstract: Chandra Horn, academic director for Canada’s Montreal School of Gemmology, said that when evaluating diamond rough, “You’re always imagining, ‘What’s going to come out of this? What’s in there?’” Photo by Kevin Schumacher/GIA

                      Equipped with a 10× jeweler’s loupe, a millimeter measuring gauge and a standard calculator, artisanal miners around the world have everything they need to determine realistic – and profitable – values of the diamond rough they mine by hand. A copy of the Rapaport Diamond Report wouldn’t hurt, either, said Chandra Horn, associate director of the Ecole de Gemmologie de Montreal, in an October 2015 lecture to students at GIA’s Carlsbad campus.

Horn said the challenge for artisanal miners – who make up a significant percentage of her school’s student population – is a lack of access to evaluation software used by large-scale manufacturing facilities or organizations, such as DTC/De Beers. They also have fewer samples of rough to compare their finds with to help them determine what manufacturing and other costs will be.

The key, Horn said, is to begin with the end in mind – considering the final product through each step of the evaluation.

“The whole goal of these gems is to end up as a finished product,” said Horn, who also teaches rough diamond evaluation. “When we start looking at how to value and grade these diamonds, it’s almost as if we have to pull out a crystal ball and look into their future and try and predict what they will become, in order for us to work backwards to see what value they have in their current state.”

Horn presented the “rough C’s,” or evaluation criteria, which she described as comparable to GIA’s 4Cs of diamond quality for polished stones:

4Cs for Polished Diamonds vs. Evaluation Factors for Rough Diamonds

				Polished

				Rough

				Carat Weight

				Carat Weight

				Cut

				Shape/Make (sometimes Model)

				Clarity

				Quality

				Color

				Color

With knowledge of those criteria, as well as the calculator, loupe and gauge, Horn said her students – and others without access to large-scale manufacturing operations – can effectively evaluate rough.

	Horn said DTC/DeBeers sorts diamond rough into 11,344 categories. While artisanal miners don’t use that many, a few simple tools give them everything they need to determine realistic, profitable values for the diamond rough they mine by hand. Photo by Kevin Schumacher/GIA

	First Steps: Size and Shape
The ideal first step, she said, is to sort a parcel of rough by size or carat weight. Miners and manufacturers must consider both how the rough (most frequently shaped as cubes, octahedrons or dodecahedrons) can be cut – considering the external and internal − and which polished shapes have the highest market values.

 “We are always looking to identify the shape so we know the orientation inside,” she said.

“Cutters have to pay attention to and respect the internal grain, whether that is the cleavage direction or differential hardness we see in diamonds. These are going to dictate what it is we can do with these stones.”

When a stone’s internal directions aren’t obvious, Horn said that unique surface features can provide clues. “The tiniest little octahedron is going to tell the cutter where they are and what direction they’re looking at.”

Horn reiterated that the rough’s final shape plays a huge role in the process, too. Most of the time, particularly when people are not evaluating for a large manufacturing facility, round brilliants will be the most desirable final shape.

“Why? Because rounds are what sell,” Horn said. “Rounds are what we see in the marketplace, and rounds are not going to sit in your safe.”

She acknowledged, though, that there was a great opportunity for profit if the next up-and-coming jewelry designer in the student lecture hall could figure out how to promote triangle-shaped diamond engagement rings.

“A triangle-shaped engagement ring trend could change the value of the macle (triangular-shaped rough),” she said. “If you can create a market for them, there are lots of these stones out there. A lot of rough dealers have these stones and it’s not worth it to them to cut them as triangles.”

	“When you work with rough, you’re always looking for the outline of your stone,” Horn said. Photo by Kevin Schumacher/GIA

	Rough Quality: Inclusions
Diamond rough’s quality – the equivalent to polished goods’ clarity – is the next aspect for evaluation. Inclusions and their reflections, as well as areas of stress and strain, must be considered.

“Inclusions can change what you can do with a stone,” Horn said. “Not only do you have to have an understanding of a little bit of crystallography and a little bit of what the cutter or manufacturer is going to do, but you definitely have to understand how the diamond grader is going to look at this finished product. What effect is that going to have on how this is graded as a polished stone?”

Showing the audience examples on the screen, Horn demonstrated how inclusions can be surrounded by areas of stress or strain.

“Pockets of stress areas and strain can lead to the stone literally exploding and/or shattering while we are trying to saw it, polish it or place a facet on it,” Horn said. “Usually, (it’s the cutter’s job) to avoid this, but if you’re buying or valuing or grading rough diamonds, you have to be conscious of it, too. Because it just changed what we can do with this stone … it is no longer simple. We have to factor this in as a danger zone.”

The sawing process itself can present risks to an otherwise “clean” stone: Horn displayed a close-up image of a piece of rough from her own collection, with a feather that hadn’t existed prior to sawing.

“They were going to cut it, do an uneven split, and get a nice, round, large stone out of this,” she said. “And then boom!” The sawer was working along the correct saw plane, but “sped it up too much – was in a bit of a rush – and provoked this feather.”

	“Meticulous measuring and math – they’re not what I signed up for, but what I have fallen in love with,” said Horn. Photo by Kevin Schumacher/GIA

	Rough Color: Strike a Balance
Horn explained that when it comes to color, rough evaluation doesn’t utilize the whole alphabet. “There is no D or E,” she said. “It’s light, medium and color.”

In general, the “less is more” rule applies – except in the case of fancy colors, which are an entirely different proposition.

“The color’s not going to look the same once we get it cut,” she said, noting that people have to consider where the color concentration is and what balance it will strike in the polished stone. “With fancy-colored stones, you definitely want to be sure they are saturated colors.”

Horn said that in green diamonds, for example, which often have very thin stains that only penetrate the stone shallowly, the wrong cutter can take off too much “rough skin” and end up with a colorless diamond.

Pinks and browns, which are often seen in color zones, are also at risk in the hands of a cutter unskilled with colored diamonds.

“That zone – that little area that held that pink color – which, as you probably know, with some of the auction results in the last few years, adds a lot of zeroes to your value – you don’t want him to polish that off,” she said. “That would be a big mistake even if it came out as a D-color (polished stone).”

Horn said that overall, “a lot of factors” must be considered when evaluating rough, and “it’s all based on the prices for polished goods.”

“At the end of the day, it’s always going to come down to what kind of value will I get? What’s my yield going to be? What percentage of this rough am I going to be retaining in the cut product?” Horn said. “It’s always going to come back to math and finance.” @topic:10


Publish Year: - Title: Bright Light at Midnight: Canada’s Far North Land of Diamonds Abstract: Immense glaciers leveled hills and carved thousands of lakes in Canada’s far north. They are pure as distilled water and remain partially frozen most of the year. Even in late June, the ice remained five feet thick in some spots. Photo courtesy Rio Tinto

                      Canada’s far north is a vast silent land of stark beauty, molded by mile-high glaciers that carved many thousands of deep ruts and pits, then, as they melted, filled them to create one of the world’s largest networks of lakes. Four of the world’s largest diamond mines are clustered around one these lakes, Lac de Gras.

The diamonds remained hidden until 20 years ago because the unforgiving climate deterred all but the hardiest of human beings – the northern First Nations tribes who have lived there for thousands of years, fishing and trapping for sustenance – from exploring the area.

	Arriving at Yellowknife, 62.4 degrees latitude, just before midnight in the June solstice, the sun is still well above the horizon. Photo by Russell Shor/GIA.
In the 10 weeks of summer at the 64th parallel there are literally endless days, with several weeks of 24-hour light. There is just enough time for the vegetation − dwarf birch, northern Labrador tea, blueberry, mountain cranberry and sphagnum moss − to survive as feed for the herds of caribou that migrate over the rocky terrain in the fall and spring.

The first freeze returns with a vengeance in late September and brings with it the spectacular lights of the Aurora Borealis. The guidebooks say this part of the world is the best place to see nature’s show, and 50,000 tourists journey to the northernmost cities, Whitehorse and Yellowknife, each fall for a view. By December, the temperatures are down to -40°C (-40°F) and there’s but a glimmer of twilight at noontime.

	Caribou are essential to the ecology of Canada’s northland. Photo courtesy of Rio Tinto
The few outsiders who ventured up to the area in the last century and a half were looking for treasure – gold at first, as with the Klondike gold rush of 1897–99. By the 1930s, gold prospectors moved farther east to the Northwest Territories and developed the provincial capital of Yellowknife. At 100 miles south of the tree line, the town sits on the north bank of the Great Slave Lake, near two gold mines. The Great Slave (named after the Slavey tribe that inhabits the area) is the world’s 10th largest lake, covering well over 10,000 square miles, and the deepest in North America, plunging more than 2,000 feet in some spots.

The tree groves that surrounded Yellowknife provided a nearly unlimited source of building materials, first for log cabins, then for processed wood beams and siding. As Yellowknife grew into the provincial capital, prospectors rarely ventured much farther north beyond the tree line, the gold mines wound down, and money stopped pouring into the town.

	Dr. James Shigley, GIA Distinguished Research Fellow, and Pedro Padua, a videographer for GIA, stand in front of one of Yellowknife’s first structures dating from 1935 when most of the settlement was built from logs. Photo by Russell Shor/GIA
A half-century later, another type of prospector came to the region – geologists searching for diamonds.

They were there for sure. People had been finding diamonds in rivers and creeks as far south as Montana in the U.S. for decades. De Beers wanted to find them first, dispatching exploration teams north in the 1980s toward the Mackenzie Mountains near the Yukon border. The team did discover garnets, chromites and ilmenites, minerals that told them diamonds could be nearby, but no diamond sources.

Yellowknife, the closest city at that time, was facing an economic decline, so when De Beers chose it as the staging area for exploration, the locals welcomed it. When the word went round that the De Beers was on the scene, others paid attention, including Superior Oil, a California-based company exploring the area for other minerals.

	Charles Fipke, left, and Stewart Blusson traversed the rugged and remote terrain of Canada’s Northwest Territories for years in their quest to find diamonds. Left photo by GIA; right photo courtesy of Stewart Blusson.
Superior Oil dispatched geologist Charles Fipke in the early 1980s and a team that included another geologist, Stewart Blusson, to the Mackenzies to explore for diamonds. They found the same indicator minerals as De Beers, but Standard Oil quickly lost interest in the project.

The two geologists knew they were on the trail, but it was Blusson, with his strong knowledge of the region’s glacial history, who understood that the glaciers were the key. They carried the indicator minerals across the expanse of barren land that also happened to host the oldest known rocks on Earth (more than 3.9 billion years), making this prime diamond country. The geologists kept up the search, using their own funds to follow the pyrope garnet trail eastward.

Blusson rented and piloted a helicopter to plot a course, setting Fipke on the ground to collect samples until the fall temperatures fell well into the minus range and daylight nearly disappeared. After three years, the composition of samples strongly suggested diamonds, but the money was running out, so Fipke embarked on a fundraising plan to sell shares in an exploration company he founded, DiaMet Minerals.

	Lichen covered rocks and sparse vegetation cover most of Canada’s far north where the growing season is only a few weeks. This is the type of terrain Fipke and Blusson traversed for years as they followed the trail of pyrope garnet. Photo by Russell Shor/GIA
Eight years into the search, the indicator minerals around one large lake were off the charts, but the money was again running out and the encroaching winter had made it impossible to continue. Fipke returned in April 1990, with the ground still frozen solid and enough money for one more day of digging. On that day, after hard digging, he and his team found more indicators, including a large chrome diopside, which told them they were practically standing on a kimberlite pipe.

With these samples, Fipke was able to convince the mining giant BHP to front the funds to finish the job in exchange for a 51% share. Eighteen months later, while war raged in Kuwait, the company announced it had found a world-class diamond deposit at the bottom of Lac de Gras.

	Diavik Mine

	Discover the expansive, beautiful and harsh environment of Canada’s Northwest Territories and go behind-the-scenes of a Canadian diamond mine.
Developing the deposit, which became the Ekati Mine, tested the ability of BHP to develop a large mine without compromising one of the world’s last pristine wildernesses. The lakes are as pure as when they were formed. Despite its barrenness, the area is home to five First Nation tribes (two branches of the Dene First Nation, the Tlicho peoples, the Kitikmewot Inuit and the North Slave Metis), all of whom follow the caribou herds for sustenance, maintaining an ecological balance that has endured for millennia. Mine construction had to ensure the caribou would continue to migrate, which meant preserving all vegetation and ensuring their safe passage through the mining areas.

Today, Canada is the world’s fourth-largest diamond-producing nation. Ekati opened in 1998, followed by Diavik five years later and Snap Lake another five years after that − all within 50 miles of each other. A fourth, Gahcho Kue, will open next year. These, plus the Victor mine in northern Ontario, yielded over 12 million carats in 2014, valued at just over $2 billion.

Exploration teams continue to traverse the northern wilderness. Two mines are under construction elsewhere in Canada, at Fort à la Corne in Saskatchewan and Renard in Quebec, and there are other sites under evaluation.

	The long Arctic winters bring seven to eight months of white landscapes and frozen lakes. The Diavik Diamond Mine, above, is in a kimberlite cluster around frozen Lac de Gras. Photo courtesy Rio Tinto
For all of the difficulties the extreme winter brings, it also presents opportunity. There are no roads beyond Yellowknife, which lies about 200 miles south of the kimberlites. In the deepest of winter, the lakes freeze hard enough to construct an ice highway that heavy trucks use to resupply the mines for the entire year – the difficulties and dangers the ice road truckers face have been well-documented.

The dangers of just being out in this unforgiving winter climate are well known, and the diamond mines have strict rules about employees venturing out in winter. No one can leave their work area without a buddy or go outside during a whiteout blizzard, because people can quickly become disoriented and die from exposure only a few yards away from safety.

“It can happen like that,” said one supervisor at Diavik, snapping his fingers. @topic:2


Publish Year: - Title: Fancy Color Diamonds Highlight Alrosa Hong Kong Tender Abstract: This 54.2 ct. Fancy Deep yellow diamond was expected to sell for $1.5 million at the Alrosa diamond tender in Hong Kong. It was mined at Lomonosov pipe in the extreme northwestern area of Russia. Photo by Russell Shor/GIA

                      Alrosa, the world’s largest diamond producer by volume, lowered prices an average of 10% at its regular September rough diamond sale, but demand for its large colorless diamonds and fancy colors remained strong at the company’s tender auction in Hong Kong.

The company, which mines and markets some 90% of Russia’s diamond production, offered polished stones larger than 5 carats and fancy colored diamonds at the Hong Kong auction. The highlights were a 54.2 carat (ct.) Fancy Deep yellow cut-corner rectangle and a 0.42 ct. Fancy Vivid purple pink. The large yellow had a minimum offer price of $1.5 million, according to Alrosa, and the purple-pink diamond had a per carat reserve of “more than $1.6 million,” one trader said.

Officials from Alrosa said both diamonds were mined in the Archangel region near the country’s border with Finland, some 2,600 miles west of Russia’s traditional diamond producing area of Mirny in Siberia. The Archangel operation, mined by a subsidiary named Severalmaz, is relatively new. It began production at the Lomonosov pipe in a small way in 2005, but a 2014 upgrade quadrupled its capacity to 1.4 million carats yearly. Another nearby pipe, Karpinskogo, also came on line last year, producing 266,000 carats, including fancy colored diamonds.

	This 0.42 ct. Fancy Vivid purple pink diamond offered at the September Alrosa diamond tender was mined at Lomonosov pipe in the extreme northwestern portion of Russia. It was expected to sell for more than $1.6 million per carat. Photo by Russell Shor/GIA
Alrosa officials said most of the diamonds at the sale had solid offers − in contrast to the slow business of the trade show happening in the convention hall several floors below. Alrosa has been running invitation-only tender auctions in tandem with the September Hong Kong Gem and Jewellery Fair, the largest single gathering of diamond traders in the world, since 2007. Last year, the company’s Hong Kong sales totaled $43.2 million, which also included on-going sales of rough and commercial sized polished diamonds.

Alrosa surpassed De Beers as the world’s largest diamond source five years ago and sells the vast majority of its production – 38 million carats last year – in regular sales similar to De Beers’ sights. In addition to its Hong Kong tenders, the company also offers large rough diamonds – 10.8 carats and above − via periodic online auctions.

De Beers remains the leader in value, however, logging rough diamond sales of $7.1 billion in 2014 (on 32.7 million carats) compared to Alrosa’s $3.7 billion.

Alrosa’s third quarter sales fell dramatically from $1 billion in last year’s June-September period to $563 million this year. Prices fell 8% to 10% on average during that same period. Its sales volume plunged from 7.6 million carats in the third quarter of 2014, to 4.9 million carats, according to an Alrosa statement.  By comparison, De Beers said it sold 14 million carats during the first half of the year, a 26% decline from the same period of 2014.

In the first half of the year, Alrosa sold just over $232 million to Gokhran, the Russian government stockpiling agency, instead of selling into the difficult diamond market.  Gokhran holds periodic auctions of its diamond stocks and 2015 sales have been running 45% below last year’s levels. The country’s Ministry of Finance estimates a year-end total of $66 million, compared to $102 million last year. @topic:7


Publish Year: - Title: Blue Nile: Higher Diamond Prices Result in Reduced Sales Abstract: Engagement ring sales, which comprise about 55% of online diamond retailer Blue Nile's business, declined 4.6% in the second quarter  of 2014. Photo by Robert Weldon/GIA

	Online diamond retailer Blue Nile CEO Harvey Kantor worried publically at the close of 2013 that consumers were beginning to resist higher diamond prices. And as prices for diamonds have risen this year ‒ especially half-carat to one-carat stones ‒ Blue Nile’s sales have indeed been slowing.

	The company reported that “the diamond price environment” in the second quarter of this year resulted in a 1.3% decline in sales compared to the same period of 2013. While it is not the first sales decline in the company’s 15-year history, this one occurred within a relatively healthy retail environment after years of double-digit growth.

	The largest decline, 4.6%, was in engagement ring sales, while non-engagement ring sales increased 2.6%. Engagement ring sales comprise about 55% of the company’s business.

	Not surprisingly, Blue Nile’s sales declines were concentrated in stones smaller than one carat, a segment that had risen in price as much as 10% this year. Sales of larger diamonds, although a small part of the company’s revenue, actually increased because prices for these goods are relatively stable.

	Beyond diamond price increases, Blue Nile is facing strong competition from traditional jewelers building their online presence. So much so, that the company is toying with the idea of going brick-and-mortar – or at least brick-and-boutique.

	Blue Nile has set up trial boutiques in The Wedding Suites areas of two Nordstrom’s department stores, one in the Seattle area and one in suburban New York. Prospective buyers can look at and handle the diamond jewelry, but purchases are still completed online via an onsite computer or the customers’ mobile phones.

	The idea, Kantor said, was to increase the “conversion rate” (clicks to sales), particularly among consumers who check Blue Nile before going shopping for a diamond ring at retail jewelers.

	Blue Nile still anticipates an increase in sales for the calendar year, estimating between $475 and $490 million, compared to $450 million in 2013. That total represented a 12.5% increase from the previous year.

	The company hinted that it will resist further diamond price increases, which will increase the pressure of diamond manufacturers’ bottom lines, even as rough prices continue to climb.

	De Beers hiked prices an average of 2-3% at its July sight on medium quality rough that polishes to less than one carat – exactly the same goods Blue Nile claims are meeting consumer resistance. @topic:7


Publish Year: - Title: Online Diamond Sales 17% of U.S. Market; New Auction Records Abstract: The “Imperial Kashmir,” a 17.16 ct sapphire, achieved a world record for a sapphire when it sold for $236,404 per carat ($4.01 million) at a Sotheby’s Oct. 7 auction in Hong Kong. All photos courtesy Sotheby’s

                      A recent De Beers study reported that worldwide retail sales of diamond jewelry totaled $79 billion last year; up $5 billion on a 7% increase in U.S. demand and 12% increase in China.

Online sales of diamond jewelry comprise about 17% of the market in the U.S., according to the study. These sales include both strictly online companies such as Blue Nile, as well as traditional retailers who also sell over the Internet.

The De Beers report also noted that 25% of Chinese consumers now research prospective diamond purchases online before making an actual purchase and that the number of retail stores selling diamond jewelry increased 30% from 2010 to 2013. There are, however, strong signs that the heady growth continues to slow, according to De Beers. Retailers in Guangdong Province reported that sales declined 5.1% for the first eight months of the year, while sales of gold pieces nationwide fell 9.1% during that period, according to a government report.

In the U.S., the Department of Commerce reported that jewelry and watch sales from all sales channels increased 4.9% in August, compared to the same month in 2013. This rise reflects even greater sales volume because prices for gold and diamonds declined several percentage points in this year.

De Beers’ noted that diamond production increased 7% to 145 million carats, still well under the 2005 peak of 175 million carats. It also predicts that production will decline, despite new sources coming on stream, because older mine deposits are getting more costly to work as operations go deeper and ore-grade declines.

De Beers’ Oct. 6 – 10 sightis estimated at $465 million, much smaller than previous sights. The October sight is usually small because it comes just before Diwali, which begins Oct. 20.

Indian diamond manufacturers typically take a two-to-three week break in operations and diamond firms settle their accounts for the year during Diwali. This year, some companies have reportedly offered discounts up to 10% on some slower-moving polished goods to enable them to settle with banks that are cutting back on credit or, in the case of the Antwerp Diamond Bank (ADB), closing doors and calling in loans. The Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council, India’s largest industry organization, has denied reports of heavy discounting, saying the long-term prospects for the country’s diamond trade “remain robust.”

ADB has a loan portfolio of $1.6 billion – with nearly all of those clients located in Antwerp. However, 60% of that portfolio is held by Indian firms with roots in Mumbai and Surat. Clients reportedly have one year to close their debts to the bank.

Immediately after the ABD news hit, the Indian Branch of Standard Chartered Bank reportedly informed clients that is was further reducing its financial exposure to the diamond industry and insisting on increased collateral to secure credit lines.

Rough prices have been softening in recent months because of the tightening credit and price resistance in the polished market. De Beers lowered prices very slightly on some high quality goods at the past sight, but prices from other producers sold at tender sales have reportedly fallen by 7%.

AUCTIONS: The records for prices keep breaking as the world’s ultra-wealthy buyers vie for rare, important gemstones. At Sotheby’s Oct. 7 Hong Kong auction, an 8.41 ct GIA-graded Fancy Vivid purple-pink, Internally Flawless diamond drew a winning bid of $17,768,041 from a private buyer from Asia. It was the highest price ever paid for a Vivid pink diamond at auction and, at $2.1 million per carat, it came close to besting the all-time per-carat price achieved by a gemstone.

	A GIA-graded pear shaped Fancy Vivid purple-pink diamond weighing 8.41 cts sold for more than $17.7 million at the Sotheby’s Oct. 7 auction.
The record pre-carat price for a Kashmir sapphire was broken twice at the same sale, the second time within minutes of the first.

The first lot was a 12.0 ct step cut mounted by Cartier, which drew a final price of $2.32 million or $193,975 per carat, besting the record set last year by just over $13,000. A few lots later, however, an Asian collector paid $4.01 million for the 17.16 ct “Imperial Kashmir.” At $236,404 per carat, it easily topped the price mark that had just been set.

While the Intense purple-pink set a record for a diamond of that grade, a pink diamond, graded Fancy Intense by GIA that weighed 24.78 cts, holds the record price for any gemstone, selling for $46 million in 2010.

	This 12.0 ct step cut sapphire and platinum ring by Cartier set with emeralds and diamonds sold for $2.32 million at the Oct. 7 Sotheby’s auction. It briefly set a record at $193,975 per carat until it was surpassed by the “Imperial Kashmir.” @topic:7


Publish Year: 2013 Title: Strong Color Zoning Reflects Complex Growth Environment Abstract: Figure 1. The strong color zoning in this Fancy Dark orangy brown diamond was visible at 10× magnification. Photo by Troy Ardon.

			A 2.08 ct emerald-cut diamond recently submitted to the Carlsbad laboratory received a color grade of Fancy Dark orangy brown. Its strong color zoning, visible without magnification, consisted of a dark orangy brown section with a few near-colorless bands and a near-colorless area. The orangy brown section showed numerous very small oriented reflective inclusions, visible in figure 1 only as dark clouds, that are typically associated with type IaA diamonds colored by 480 nm visible absorption bands. Both the near-colorless side and the colorless bands displayed very few oriented reflective inclusions.

				Figure 2. Under long-wave UV illumination at 10× magnification, the diamond’s color zones showed blue and yellowish fluorescence. Photo by Troy Ardon.

				The diamond’s unusual fluorescence under both long- and short-wave UV illumination can be seen in figures 2 and 3, respectively. Under long-wave UV (handheld lamp) the near-colorless section showed typical blue fluorescence. The orangy brown section displayed a yellowish fluorescence, which is common in type IaA yellow diamonds. Under the higher-energy, shorter-wavelength UV excitation of the DiamondView, the distinction between the colors became even more pronounced, and the blue fluorescence of the near-colorless bands was clearly visible within the yellowish green fluorescence of the orangy brown section. Yellow phosphorescence, common in type IaA diamonds colored by 480 nm visible absorption bands, was also observed in the orangy brown area.

				Figure 3. This DiamondView image of the color-zoned diamond shows an even more pronounced distinction between the colors. Image by Troy Ardon.

				Infrared spectroscopy revealed a type Ia diamond with both A and B aggregates. When IR spectra were collected separately from the near-colorless and orangy brown sections, distinct differences were noted. The orangy brown section contained ~33 ppm of A-aggregated nitrogen and ~15 ppm of B-aggregated nitrogen, whereas the near-colorless section showed significantly higher concentrations: approximately 139 ppm of A aggregates and 100 ppm of B aggregates. In addition to the higher overall nitrogen content, the near-colorless portion contained a higher proportion of B-aggregated nitrogen impurities.

				The unique zoning observed in this diamond likely reflects changing conditions during growth. Variations in nitrogen and possibly oxygen content in the earth’s interior—480 nm defects are reportedly related to oxygen impurities in diamond—could have produced the noteworthy color and fluorescence zoning that reveal the complex growth history. @topic:4


Publish Year: 2003 Title: Obtaining U.S. Copyright Registration for the Elara Square Cut-Cornered Brilliant Diamond Abstract: In 2000, the U.S. Copyright Office granted what is believed to be the first copyright registration covering a gemstone design. Previously, the Copyright Office maintained that cut designs lacked artistic or sculptural authorship, and that gemstone faceting was a non-copyrightable array of common geometrical shapes in a three-dimensional object. The application to obtain copyright registration for the Elara—a square cut-cornered brilliant diamond design—was initially rejected on similar grounds. However, the position of the copyright examiner was successfully appealed to the highest level of the Copyright Office, which ultimately decided that copyright registration for the Elara cut was appropriate. This experience shows that there may be a new intellectual property vehicle available for manufacturers to protect proprietary cut designs. @topic:8


Publish Year: 2000 Title: Spectroscopic Evidence of GE POL HPHT-Treated Natural Type IIA Diamonds Abstract: Results from spectroscopic analyses of GE POL high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) annealed nominally type IIa diamonds are presented, and these spectral characteristics are compared with those of untreated diamonds of similar appearance and type. Absorption spectroscopy reveals that any yellow coloration in such HPHT-treated diamonds is due to low concentrations of single nitrogen, which have not been observed in untreated type IIa diamonds. Laser-excited photoluminescence spectroscopy reveals the presence of nitrogen-vacancy centers in most, but not all, HPHT-treated stones. When these centers are present, the ratio of the 575:637 nm luminescence intensities offers a potential means of separating HPHT-treated from untreated type IIa diamonds. The total absence of luminescence may be another important indicator of HPHT treatment. @topic:4


Publish Year: 2009 Title: “Fluorescence Cage”: Visual Identification of HPHT-Treated Type I Diamonds Abstract: HPHT-treated type I diamonds of various colors may exhibit unusually intense fluorescence at the facet edges and junctions. This effect, here named the “fluorescence cage,” is observed with a fluorescence microscope as a luminous network on the diamond’s surface. It was not observed in untreated diamonds or colorless type IIa HPHT-treated diamonds. This fluorescence pattern is believed to result from a high concentration of HPHT-induced optical centers, which remain on facet edges after repolishing. @topic:4


Publish Year: 1999 Title: Clues to the Process Used by General Electric to Enhance the GE POL Diamonds Abstract: The specific details of the process used to enhance color and clarity in GE POL diamonds have not been disclosed. However, a survey of U.S. patents and European patent applications reveals that General Electric has developed a variety of high-temperature annealing techniques at different pressures for enhancing the optical properties of polycrystalline synthetic diamond films and single-crystal synthetic diamond. These methods may provide important clues to the process being used to decolorize natural type IIa (GE POL) diamonds, that is, by reducing the structural defects associated with their brown coloration. @topic:4


Publish Year: 1996 Title: De Beers Natural versus Synthetic Diamond Verification Instruments Abstract: Two instruments have been developed at De Beers DTC Research Centre, Maidenhead, to distinguish synthetic diamonds from natural diamonds. The DiamondSureTM enables the rapid examination of large numbers of polished diamonds, both loose and set in jewelry. Automatically and with high sensitivity, this instrument detects the presence of the 415 nm optical absorption line, which is found in the vast majority of natural diamonds but not in synthetic diamonds. Those stones in which this line is detected are "passed" by the instrument, and those in which it is not detected are "referred for further tests." The DiamondViewTM produces a fluorescence image of the surface of a polished diamond, from which the growth structure of the stone may be determined. On the basis of this fluorescence pattern—which is quite different for natural as compared to synthetic diamonds—the trained operator can positively identify whether a diamond is natural or synthetic. @topic:4


Publish Year: 1993 Title: Two Near-Colorless General Electric Type-IIA Synthetic Diamond Crystals Abstract: Gemological examination of two near-colorless, isotopically pure, carbon-12 synthetic diamonds grown recently by General Electric reveals short-wave ultraviolet luminescence behavior, a cathodoluminescence pattern, and small metallic inclusions that are typical of other gem-quality synthetic diamonds. These characteristics also help separate them from natural type-IIa diamonds. Study of additional near-colorless synthetic diamonds is needed to confirm these preliminary observations. @topic:4


Publish Year: 1993 Title: Two Treated-Color Synthetic Red Diamonds Seen in the Trade Abstract: Two dark brownish red faceted stones, recently submitted to the GIA Gem Trade Laboratory for standard origin-of-color reports, were found to be treated synthetic diamonds. This conclusion was based on observations of: patterns of zoned color, U. V. luminescence, and graining; metallic inclusions; and certain bands in the visible- and infrared-range absorption spectra. We believe that this is one of the first published reports of treated-color synthetic diamonds seen as faceted gems. For some of the gemological features described here, such as visible-range spectra with sharp absorption bands, this is one of the first reported occurrences in gem-quality synthetic diamonds. @topic:4


Publish Year: 1991 Title: Age, Origin, and Emplacement of Diamonds: Scientific Advances in the Last Decade Abstract: Scientific advances in the past decade have completely altered our understanding of certain concepts relating to the age and origin of diamonds. As a generalization, most diamonds formed more than 990 million years ago, deep within the earth, from either of two rock types, peridotite and eclogite. They were stored below the base of cratons for varying periods of time, some as long as 3,200 million years, before being transported to the surface. Kimberlite and lamproite, the two rock types usually associated with diamonds, are only the mechanisms that brought diamonds to the surface and are in no way related to the formation of most diamonds. Other topics that are somewhat more speculative, for example, the source of carbon for the crystallization of diamonds and the mechanism of kimberlite and lamproite emplacement, are also discussed and the latest concepts presented. @topic:8


Publish Year: 2004 Title: Identification of Synthetic Diamond Grown Using Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) Abstract: Studies carried out at the DTC Research Centre have shown that single-crystal CVD synthetic diamond is clearly distinguishable from natural diamond. This article presents information about the CVD process, the history of its development, the different kinds of CVD synthetic diamond material that can be produced, and properties that differentiate them from natural diamond. The authors studied more than a thousand CVD synthetic diamond samples that were grown for research purposes using a range of different process conditions. Absorption, photoluminescence, and cathodoluminescence spectra of these CVD synthetic diamond samples showed a range of different impurity-related features not seen in natural diamond. Photoluminescence imaging is also useful in identifying CVD synthetic diamond, and X-ray topography may give supportive evidence. The effectiveness of the Diamond Trading Company Diamond Verification Instruments for identifying CVD synthetic diamond is also described. @topic:4


Publish Year: 2001 Title: Modeling the Appearance of the Round Brilliant Cut Diamond: An Analysis of Fire, and More about Brilliance Abstract: This article presents the latest results of GIA’s research on the interaction of light with fully faceted colorless symmetrical round brilliant cut diamonds of various proportions. The second major article in this three-dimensional modeling study, it deals with fire—the visible extent of light dispersed into spectral colors. As fire is best seen with directed (spot) lighting, the metric for fire presented (dispersed colored light return, or DCLR) uses this lighting condition. DCLR values were computed for more than 26,000 combinations of round brilliant proportions. In general, different sets of proportions maximize DCLR and WLR (weighted light return, our metric for brilliance), but there are some proportion combinations that produce above-average values of both metrics. Analysis of these metric values with variations of five proportion parameters demonstrated that every facet contributes to the appearance of a round brilliant diamond. In particular, star and lower-girdle facet lengths—which are ignored by most cut-evaluation systems—could have a noticeable effect on WLR and DCLR. Observations of actual diamonds corroborate these results. @topic:10


Publish Year: 1998 Title: Modeling the Appearance of the Round Brilliant Cut Diamond: An Analysis of Brilliance Abstract: Of the “four C’s,” cut has historically been the most complex to understand and assess. This article presents a three-dimensional mathematical model to study the interaction of light with a fully faceted, colorless, symmetrical round-brilliant-cut diamond. With this model, one can analyze how various appearance factors (brilliance, fire, and scintillation) depend on proportions. The model generates images and a numerical measurement of the optical efficiency of the round brilliant—called weighted light return (WLR)—which approximates overall brilliance. This article examines how WLR values change with variations in cut proportions, in particular crown angle, pavilion angle, and table size. The results of this study suggest that there are many combinations of proportions with equal or higher WLR than “Ideal” cuts. In addition, they do not support analyzing cut by examining each proportion parameter independently. However, because brilliance is just one aspect of the appearance of a faceted diamond, ongoing research will investigate the added effects of fire and scintillation. @topic:10


Publish Year: 2011 Title: Exploring the Origin and Nature of Luminescent Regions in CVD Synthetic Diamond Abstract: In the DiamondView instrument, blue to blue-green luminescent zones may be seen in CVD synthetic diamond when the growth run has been interrupted and resumed, a well-known practice in the production of gem-quality CVD synthetics. DiamondView, photoluminescence (PL), and cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging were applied to study the origin and nature of these luminescent regions in two samples of high-purity single-crystal CVD synthetic diamond. DiamondView and PL measurements showed a correlation with silicon-related centers. In addition, CL analysis confirmed the presence of boron. Both silicon and boron showed preferential incorporation at the interface between CVD layers, where a higher uptake of impurities lead to the observed luminescence. Although the growth interruptions cannot be detected with the naked eye, the growth history can be determined accurately using luminescence imaging and spectroscopy techniques. @topic:4


Publish Year: - Title: Long-Term Durability of CVD Synthetic Film on Natural Diamond Abstract: Figure 1. This 0.27 ct diamond with a boron-doped CVD synthetic diamond film on the pavilion received a color grade of Fancy Dark brownish yellowish gray. The distinct color zoning seen in this photo makes it apparent that the diamond has been treated in some way and is not a natural stone. Photo by Robison McMurtry.

                      In 2005, a thin film (10 µm) of synthetic diamond grown by chemical vapor deposition was deposited on the pavilion of a 0.27 ct natural diamond. The CVD layer was deliberately doped with boron to create a bluish color. No subsequent polishing was performed. Rather than blue, the resulting color was a less desirable gray. This natural diamond with CVD overgrowth was then reset in a ring and worn daily by the author for the next eight years. Recently, this hybrid diamond was removed from its setting for gemological and spectroscopic characterization and to assess the current state of the CVD film.

Well-controlled durability studies have examined non-diamond coatings on diamond (e.g., A.H. Shen et al., “Serenity coated colored diamonds: Detection and durability,” Spring 2007 G&G, pp. 16–34) and nanocrystalline diamond coatings on non-diamond materials (J.E. Shigley et al., “Characterization of colorless coated cubic zirconia [Diamantine],” Spring 2012 G&G, pp. 18–30). To our knowledge, however, none have been performed on CVD diamond films grown on natural diamond. The assessment of this one sample, given the exposure a ring is usually subjected to, can indicate the long-term stability of such coatings on diamond. The expectation was that such films would remain stable, as there is no lattice mismatch in the crystal structure between the CVD synthetic film and the natural diamond. Lattice mismatch and the resulting low cohesion at the diamond/non-diamond interface typically result in moderate to very poor durability.

It was difficult to find evidence of the CVD layer using spectroscopic techniques. FTIR absorption (which generally provides data from the bulk of the diamond) revealed no CVD-specific features, only that the underlying diamond was type Ia. Using PL spectroscopy, which collects data from a limited area, it was difficult to find spectroscopic evidence of the CVD film, even when the PL data were collected in confocal mode. No CVD-related 3123 cm–1 peak was detected in IR absorption, and the silicon peak at 737 nm was not observed in PL. The best evidence of the CVD layer’s continued existence on the diamond was from its unusual appearance in visual observation (figure 1) and microscopic analysis (figure 2). The pavilion also showed electrical conductivity, which provides another indication of the boron doping.

Figure 2. This differential interference contrast image shows the irregular texture of the CVD overgrowth film on the pavilion facets of the 0.27 ct natural diamond. Each facet is a different color, and the boundaries between colors are facet junctions. Image by Nathan Renfro.
By examining the pavilion of the diamond at high magnification, we could assess the condition of the CVD layer after eight years of daily wear. The film was still largely intact, covering the entire pavilion and containing only a few sporadic pinholes. There was no noticeable degradation at the facet junctions. The obvious color zoning in figure 1 that appears to divide the diamond into quadrants is likely due to differences in deposition and boron incorporation rates on the various facets. Recently, the diamond was annealed twice, at 600°C and 700°C for one hour each in a reducing atmosphere, in an effort to make it appear bluer. This treatment changed the color from Fancy Dark brownish yellowish gray to Fancy Dark gray.

As treatments become more sophisticated and move from the laboratory into the trade, the need for accurate detection only intensifies. Nevertheless, such semipermanent films are identifiable and reiterate the need to use both spectroscopic and traditional methods for gemological characterization. @topic:4


Publish Year: 2006 Title: The Cullinan Diamond Centennial: A History and Gemological Analysis Of Cullinans I And II Abstract: The year 2005 marked a century since the discovery of the largest gem diamond ever found: the 3,106 ct Cullinan. Eight decades after it was mined, a team of gemologists conducted the first modern examinations of the two largest diamonds cut from the rough, the 530 ct Cullinan I and the 317 ct Cullinan II, which have been part of the Crown Jewels of England since their presentation to King Edward VII in 1908. This article traces the history of this famous piece of rough and its source, South Africa’s Cullinan (formerly Premier) mine, which has yielded more significant diamonds than any other single locality. It also presents the full details of the examination and grading of these two approximately D-color, potentially flawless historic diamonds. @topic:11


Publish Year: - Title: Visit to Zbird in Shanghai: Unlocking the Chinese Retail Diamond Industry Secrets Abstract: The retail company Zbird is synonymous in China with online sales of diamond and wedding jewelry. Photo courtesy of Zbird.

                      The story of Zbird is really the story of an amazing brother and sister partnership that built one of the most successful retail jewelry businesses in China. It is also the story of the evolution of the Chinese retail jewelry industry, and how this sibling pair not only seized opportunities but was also instrumental in setting the course of the industry. They have been a leading force in the internet diamond and wedding jewelry business in China. A GIA team had the opportunity to interview them both in Shanghai and to visit two of their retail stores.

	Zbird is known in China as a trend setter among diamond wedding jewelry styles and business models. Photo courtesy of Zbird.

	Starting Out : The Online Diamond Business in China
Zbird was founded in 2002. The company name is a combination of the names of the brother, Xu Lei, and his sister, Xu Xiao. Xu Lei’s Chinese name contains three characters that mean “stone,” which connects it to diamonds and gemstones. Xu Xiao’s English name is “bird,” which also connotes a highly efficient ecommerce business. The company’s name set the course of the business.

	Zbird has become a leader in China for online sales of diamond jewelry. Photo courtesy of Zbird.
When the company was founded, there was no EBay or Taobao, and only one online trading company called YiQu. Three months after posting its first loose diamond on the internet, Zbird had its first sale, which launched the online diamond business.

Xu Lei said that, at first, their biggest challenge was to inspire confidence in their customers. They were selling diamonds online at about half the price charged by most department stores in China. Zbird had to reassure potential clients about the quality of the diamonds they were offering for sale online. Since Xu Lei was a gemology major and GIA Diamonds graduate, he had confidence in the GIA grading system and the value of its diamond-grading reports.

In 2002, he rarely saw loose diamonds being sold with diamond grading reports. Most diamonds sold with reports were over 1 carat, while most diamonds sold in China were 30 points to 1 carat. Xu Lei decided to import diamonds in that size range with GIA grading reports. He said most dealers laughed at him at the time due to the cost difference but he was sure that the grading reports would add value.

	In China, most of the diamonds sold for engagement rings weigh less than one carat. Photo courtesy of Zbird.
Through the years, Chinese consumers became more educated about diamonds, and the reports became crucial to sales. Xu Lei believes that GIA reports play a very important role in today’s Chinese diamond market. Almost all online diamond dealers now sell loose diamonds with GIA reports as well as reports from other professional grading laboratories.

	“Clicks and Mortar”
According to Xu Xiao, Zbird pioneered the sales model they call “Clicks and Mortar” in the China retail diamond market. Clicks and Mortar combines the ease and speed of online sales with a physical offline experience. The internet makes it possible to combine a wide range of diamond products with fast, high-quality service. This makes it very popular with the younger generation, which is a very important demographic for Zbird’s business.

Most of their younger customers were introduced to Zbird through the internet, which provides Zbird with a convenient way to quickly contact and interact with their customers. The “mortar” portion of Clicks and Mortar encompasses what Zbird calls their Experience Stores, which provide customers with a real-world environment where they can physically connect with the brand and products.

	Zbird calls their retail stores Experience Stores. Photo courtesy of Zbird.
While the products offered for sale are often the same, there are shopping differences between online and Experience Stores. Customers looking for engagement and wedding rings are more likely to actually buy the ring in the Experience Store. Online customers tend to buy more personalized diamond jewelry like pendants, earrings, and other pieces that are less likely to require opinions from family members.

	Zbird designs their stores to provide a quality experience for the customer. In their retail stores, Zbird combines website choices with an actual salesperson presence. Photo courtesy of Zbird.
This explains why the per-transaction value of their online products is lower than in the store. More rings, especially engagement and wedding rings, are sold offline, while more diamond accessory jewelry is sold online. In 2007, Zbird received its first international venture-capital investment, which allowed for Experience Store expansion. Further venture-capital investment came in 2008 and 2010, helping to fuel 200% growth in the last few years.  Zbird currently has 15 Experience Stores in 14 cities, with approximately 500 employees to service the offline business.

	Customer Demographics
Zbird has worked hard for more than 11 years to develop their online business, which is why most of their customers are younger—ages 25 to 35—and so-called “white collar.” They became familiar with Zbird through the internet. Zbird was ranked number one in China for both quantity of jewelry sales and customer satisfaction, and their status has grown steadily. According to Google, Zbird is the internet’s most popular brand for diamond wedding rings in China. Zbird also uses the internet to make after-sale follow-up contacts with their customers and build long-term relationships.

Most of Zbird’s individual in-store wedding ring sales amount to about $10,000 RMB, about equal to a young man’s three-month salary. The average is a bit lower for internet purchases. The customers are often couples. They come in together to look at engagement and wedding rings, but it is usually the woman who makes the final choice.

When it comes to other diamond jewelry decisions, the woman almost always decides and often shops alone or on the internet. A woman might put the jewelry item on her online wish list for her boyfriend or husband to check and buy for her. Ultimately, however, it is the woman who makes the buying decision and women are the majority of Zbird’s customers.

	Xu Lei’s Vision of the Chinese Diamond Market
Xu Lei describes his vision of the Chinese diamond market’s potential with great enthusiasm:

	“China still has lots of potential because we have an enormously huge population base. Our population is three times that of the US. China’s internet-using population is equal to the population of the US. In terms of the market’s future, I think that the wedding jewelry market will still be very important. The VIP market is a new possibility for exploration, but we will keep focusing on the wedding jewelry market. In China, about 15 million couples get married every year. Thirty- to 50-point diamonds are the mainstream products for young Chinese couples. We know that this range in the US is 80 points to 1 carat. If young couples in China start buying larger diamonds, the market will double and it will soon catch up to the US. Moreover, current Chinese consumers are mostly made up of the so-called “white collar” group, who work in big cities. Although the tradition of diamond as the main wedding jewelry stone comes from the western world, the concept has deeply influenced Chinese couples and they have accepted it completely. So, along with white-collar workers, more and more young couples from rural areas will start buying diamonds as well. Zbird is ready to take on this market.”

	Xu Lei is in charge of maintaining a constant supply of high-quality diamonds for Zbird’s jewelry lines. Photo courtesy of Zbird.
Zbird places a lot of focus on the wedding jewelry market. Xu Lei feels the market has changed. He explains: “Before, couples would primarily pick a simple solitaire mounting in 18K and platinum with a center stone.” Today he sees more interest in design. He feels the design of the company’s wedding jewelry is one of the leading features attracting young customers today.

	Zbird’s Jewelry Designs and Lines
Xu Xiao says that Zbird’s design style is primarily contemporary. They offer jewelry themes such as their “Promise of Love” wedding ring line, a joint effort between Zbird and international designers. This series of wedding jewelry features flowers surrounded by diamonds and symbolizing lovers’ hugs and kisses. These themes are created for eye-catching effect and to add deeper meaning to the jewelry. They also market a diamond brand called “Aurora Borealis” for their top-cut-grade diamonds.

	The “Promise of Love” campaign has been very well received by the Chinese bridal market. Photo courtesy of Zbird.

	Zbird offers their top-cut-grade diamonds under the “Aurora Borealis” brand. Photo courtesy of Zbird.
Zbird offers classic and traditional jewelry along with its more fashion-forward designs. An example of the latter is called “Angels and Demons.” During the day at a typical white-collar office in China, a woman can wear the Angel design as a stylish diamond accessory. At night, she can wear the more edgy Demon design to after-work parties.

	“Angels and Demons” is a versatile jewelry design concept for day and evening wear. Photo courtesy of Zbird.
Besides style, another design consideration is cost. Today’s customers in China want expensive and elegant jewelry for formal occasions and less expensive, more fashion-forward pieces for casual wear. Xu Xiao says that Chinese customers generally prefer simpler and smaller jewelry pieces than customers in the West, and far less extravagant styles than customers in India.

Recently, Zbird’s chief designer worked with Platinum Guild International to jointly launch a series called “Two People One World.” There is a Chinese saying, “Fly next to each other,” which refers to two people moving through life together toward a better life. The style resembles a bird's wings to symbolize two people pursuing happiness in their lives. It also symbolizes the Zbird brand’s brother and sister team.

	Zbird works with Platinum Guild International to promote platinum bridal jewelry in China. Photo courtesy of Zbird.
Zbird also sells a series of personalized jewelry called “In Fashion,” which can convert into different styles to coordinate with different outfits, allowing every woman to find her own jewelry style. The Zbird slogan is “Shine for You,” and Xu Xiao strives to deliver that feeling to her customers in the company’s products and service.

Over the past 20 years, Chinese customers have come to realize the importance of jewelry design. Twenty years ago, jewelry was valued for just the quality of the components, and customers based their buying decisions on that. For example, if they wanted to buy a gold ring, they would pick a simple band. But now, with the promotion of fashion concepts, they don’t just want the material to be real and valuable, they want its design to reflect their personality and taste. This is why Zbird has been creating different styles beyond the classics.

	Today’s Chinese consumers look for both intrinsic value and design quality in jewelry. Zbird provides fancy-colored diamonds for their most discriminating customers. Photo courtesy of Zbird.
Zbird thinks that there has been a lot of progress in all aspects of Chinese jewelry design over the past 20 years. Xu Xiao feels that jewelry design in China is getting better in terms of originality. There are more and more opportunities and levels of artistic freedom for young designers. And the market is also more and more open to original product designs.

	Design and fashion sense have become important considerations for Chinese consumers looking for their own jewelry styles. Photo courtesy of Zbird.

	Customized Designs and VIP customers
Even with all these design choices, some customers still want unique custom jewelry that expresses their personalities and attitudes. To meet this need, Zbird has set up a platform for them to work with skilled designers and other professionals. This provides Zbird with many design options to appeal to a wide range of customers’ tastes and help them show their individuality. Xu Xiao says, “Today, customers want to buy more personalized products, not the same ones everyone else has. So we’ve introduced the design-it-yourself service. They can select a diamond and then choose a setting for it.”

	Zbird is involved in uniquely designed jewelry as well as classic and contemporary styles. Photo courtesy of Zbird.
Zbird also creates special customized products for VIP customers. Along with custom jewelry design, the company provides a global diamond-search service for them, including a search for the finest-quality colored and fancy-shape diamonds. The designs are all one-of-a-kind, so VIP customers receive the most exclusive service and choice possible.

	Quality Service
In addition to providing customers with superior jewelry values, Zbird strives to provide good service. In Xu Xiao’s opinion, “Our promise that we will provide worry-free follow-up service is just as important as the diamonds they buy from us.” Zbird offers their customers a lifetime guarantee. When customers buy products from Zbird, they can enjoy services that include maintenance, upgrading, and more. Xu Xiao believes that a wise customer considers not only the price but also the whole package. “And only a good brand can provide the whole package, which is the thing that keeps our customers coming back and makes our business a success.“

	New Opportunity: Diamond Investment Business
Xu Lei describes how, a year and a half ago, the company decided to seize another business opportunity. With the rise of the wealthy class in China came the rise of investment options. Xu Lei said, “They all have their own individual ways to invest their money. Some of them buy property, stocks, or gold. China recently applied a lot of new policies to try to control land prices, so property is not as good an investment as it was before. The stock market is not very thrilling either. Gold prices are not that stable. We thought that maybe we could educate those wealthy people to purchase collections of diamonds as part of their investments.”

	Zbird works with major banking institutions in China to provide diamond investment
	services. Photo courtesy of Zbird.
Zbird took action by contacting several well-known Chinese banks. Two of them agreed to work with Zbird: China Merchants Bank and China Construction Bank. Currently, Zbird services and supports both banks’ personal diamond investment businesses.

Xu Lei elaborated, “We made a lot of progress during the past year and a half. In the first year, we launched a team of 10 staffers to work on this investment project. This team’s sales figures for a year were 100 million RMB—about 15 million US dollars. The largest stone they sold was over 23 carats. It sold for over 13 million RMB—about 2 million US dollars. Today, there are many wealthy people in China who can afford this type of diamond, but they need a convenient way to buy and also to know more about diamonds. The most important thing is to have someone trustworthy to serve them and help them manage their money. Our team is more like a private jewelry consultant team.”

	Promoting the Brand
Zbird constantly advertises their brand, including sponsoring national concert tours in 2010 and 2011 for a domestically well-known singing star, Wangfei. Every year Zbird takes part in charitable activities, including the launch of a fund for blind children and financial aid to poor children. They have also promised to donate a tree whenever they sell a diamond, and today the “Yellow River Love Forest of Zbird” covers 300 acres. According to Xu Xiao, “As a jewelry brand, we consider love to be our eternal theme, and we hope our team and customers can sense and share it.”

	Zbird is involved with charitable projects for children. Photo courtesy of Zbird. @topic:12


Publish Year: - Title: Visit to Chow Tai Fook Diamond Cutting Factory in Foshan, China Abstract: Chow Tai Fook is a vertically integrated manufacturing-to-retail jewelry company. Their value chain includes state-of-the-art diamond cutting. Photo by Pedro Padua, © GIA, courtesy of Chow Tai Fook, Yueshun Fook Jewellery and Diamond Co.

                      Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Limited is widely considered to be China’s largest jewelry retailer. It’s part of Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Ltd., a diversified Hong Kong based company that’s also engaged in property development, hotels and casinos, and transportation, port, and telecommunication businesses.

Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Limited had retail sales of $7.4 billion US in 2012, with a profit of $730 million. The company has been listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong since December 2011 and it’s the world’s largest jeweler based on its market capitalization. Chow Tai Fook is a member company of the Hang Seng China 50 Index and Hang Seng Mainland 100 Index.

	Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Limited is one of the best-known jewelry companies in Asia. The company is known globally for its success.
Along with its extensive retail network, the company covers the entire value chain, including raw material procurement, design, diamond cutting, jewelry manufacturing, marketing, and sales. Its principal products are mass-market and high-end luxury jewelry, including gem-set, gold, and platinum styles, and watches.

	Company Milestones
Chow Tai Fook had its start in the jewelry industry in 1929. In 1938 and 1939, respectively, they opened their first retail stores in Macau and Hong Kong. They introduced a line of 999.9 fine gold jewelry in 1956. This purity guarantee was highly successful at creating customer trust and building a loyal clientele.

Foshan Yushunfu Jewellery and Diamond Company Limited, a then-related part of the company, opened its first diamond processing and jewelry manufacturing factory in Shunde in 1988, thereby strengthening the vertical integration of the Group's business model. Foshan Yushunfu became a full subsidiary in 2011.  Zlotowski’s Diamond Cutting Works (Proprietary) Ltd., located in Johannesburg, South Africa, also became a subsidiary in 2011.

Chow Tai Fook has secured multiple sources of rough diamonds to supply their cutting factories and retail stores. In 1993, the company qualified as a Diamond Trading Company (DTC) sightholder, which gave them the right to source rough diamonds directly from the DTC. The addition of Zlotowski’s, already a DTC sightholder at the time, strengthened that position. In 2009, Chow Tai Fook became a Select Diamantaire of Rio Tinto Diamonds. In 2012, they entered into a strategic two-year agreement with Alrosa of Russia for procuring supplies of its rough diamonds.

Rio Tinto has also partnered with Chow Tai Fook to promote its Argyle mine diamonds in their stores. Rio Tinto’s new underground mining operation at Argyle has the potential to produce substantial quantities of small diamonds for the jewelry needs of the Chinese middle class.

	Like all diamond manufacturers, Chow Tai Fook needed to secure a constant supply of rough for their manufacturing needs in a tight global market. Photo by Eric Welch, © GIA, courtesy of Chow Tai Fook, Yueshun Fook Jewellery and Diamond Co.
In 1998, Chow Tai Fook opened the company’s first retail store in mainland China, located in Beijing. In 2003 they centralized their mainland operations with headquarters in Shenzhen. By 2010 they had 1,000 retail outlets in mainland China (including franchisees and their own outlets). Chow Tai Fook’s retail network now includes over 1,800 outlets in more than 400 cities in Greater China, Singapore, and Malaysia. It also has a growing e-commerce presence. Chow Tai Fook has plans to open 2,000 chain stores in mainland China by the year 2020.

In June of 2013, during an extensive trip through China, GIA representatives visited the Chow Tai Fook diamond-cutting factory in Foshan. The team was given a highly informative guided tour of the factory, with detailed explanations of each manufacturing area and process.

	At the Chow Tai Fook factory, the GIA team extensively documented the operation of each department involved in the company’s diamond manufacturing business. Photo by Eric Welch, © GIA, courtesy of Chow Tai Fook, Yueshun Fook Jewellery and Diamond Co.

	Sorting, Planning, and Marking
The tour began in the sorting, planning, and marking room. All incoming rough diamonds come to this room to be sorted by shape, size, clarity, and color. After sorting, the rough diamonds’ cuts are planned and the rough is marked. The process makes use of instrumentation that includes the Helium M Box, Sarin Galaxy 1000, and other Sarin optical measuring and marking instruments, as well as traditional hand marking.

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	Today, optical instruments play a critical role in planning a diamond’s cut.
The instruments can mark the rough with more precision than is possible by hand, and the line is typically straighter and more accurately placed. Even a difference of one degree, causing a weight difference of one percent, can make a substantial difference in value. This is highly important considering the tight profit margins of diamonds today and the large volumes of diamonds coming through a modern factory.

Rough that requires a lot of care in the planning stages due to inclusions often goes into the Helium M Box so the planner can use a microscope to closely examine the inclusions’ nature. Included rough can also be efficiently analyzed with the Sarin Galaxy 1000, which can plan the placement of the cut stone within the rough and eliminate many of the inclusions.

The Sarin DiaMark-Z is the factory’s most commonly used optical planning and marking instrument and is used for “normal goods,” meaning stones with SI1 to IF clarity and standard sawable shapes.

The GIA team watched a planner use the DiaMark-Z to analyze and mark diamond rough for sawing. The first step was for the planner to decide what diamond shape would result in the best yield and value, based on the shape of the rough. If the rough is long, the shape of the cut stone would most likely be something like a pear or marquise.

After the cut stone’s shape is selected, the best combination of cut stone sizes is determined. For most octahedral rough, the stone is sawn off-center so one cut stone will be larger than the other. The best shape and cutting style from octahedral rough is usually the round brilliant. Some rough that is more rounded in shape might best be sawn to produce two equal-size diamonds.

The Sarin DiaMark-Z quickly displays all the potential combinations for two round brilliant cut stones, and value calculations are built into the software. A simple instrument called a polariscope uses polarized light to determine if the rough crystal contains potentially damaging strain.

	In a simple instrument called a polariscope, these diamonds are being checked for strain that could cause breakage. Photo by Eric Welch, © GIA, courtesy of Chow Tai Fook, Yueshun Fook Jewellery and Diamond Co.
The Sarin Galaxy 1000 is an accurate, automated system for mapping out inclusions in more challenging, highly included stones. This machine scans a rough diamond’s exterior and records its dimensions. Mapping of inclusions takes place inside the machine, in some cases making it difficult to see them clearly. This is especially true with the edges of very fine feathers. However, the Galaxy 1000 is much faster than the Helium M Box, which is often used for larger stones.

	The Sarin Galaxy 1000 is a fast and efficient system for mapping a rough diamond’s inclusions. Photo by Eric Welch, © GIA, courtesy of Chow Tai Fook, Yueshun Fook Jewellery and Diamond Co.
The GIA team watched the planning of a challenging piece of rough using the Sarin Galaxy 1000 System. The instrument plotted all the inclusions and showed where round brilliants could be cut from the stone, eliminating most of the inclusions and producing higher-clarity, higher-value diamonds. The instrument identified three stones that could be cut from the rough while eliminating I1 to I3 clarity-grade inclusions. The instrument identified all the inclusions in the rough and then brought up a computer model for planning.

	This complicated piece of rough was analyzed by the Sarin Galaxy 1000. Results showed that it could yield three diamonds while avoiding inclusions that would substantially lower value. Photo by Pedro Padua, © GIA, courtesy of Chow Tai Fook, Yueshun Fook Jewellery and Diamond Co.
Inside the Galaxy 1000, the rough diamond is immersed in a liquid, making it more transparent and allowing more accurate identification and mapping of inclusions. The rough diamond appears white and the inclusions stand out as dark, making their locations and shapes easy to see. After the scanning is complete, the files are transferred to the computer for plotting of all the inclusions onto a 3D model. The model is saved into the company’s server so the diamond markers can open the file and plan the diamond cut.

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	The Sarin Galaxy 1000 helps prepare rough by mapping its inclusions.
The Helium M Box works along with a scanner and a microscope. First, the scanner performs normal mapping of the rough’s outline. Next, the rough is put under the microscope and the inclusions are plotted and input through the computer. At that point, the system can plan the cut, taking into consideration the inclusions and the potential clarity grades of the cut stones.

The microscope’s magnification level can reach to over 150X. The process is time consuming—one stone takes two to three hours—but the advantage is that the powerful microscope makes it very accurate, allowing for more options and the ability to improve the clarity, and ultimately the value, of the cut stones. The team watched this instrument map out a five-carat round brilliant and a four-carat round brilliant from a piece of rough, allowing for removal of a feather to improve the clarity grade of one of the cut stones.

	The Helium M Box uses a powerful microscope along with a scanner to locate and map inclusions. Photo by Eric Welch, © GIA, courtesy of Chow Tai Fook, Yueshun Fook Jewellery and Diamond Co.
The Helium M Box utilizes its very powerful microscope to map out the rough’s inclusions in great detail. This makes even difficult to map inclusions like fine feathers and pinpoints easier to detect. The Helium M Box is often used for analyzing larger stones. The Galaxy 1000 and the Helium M Box often work as a team. Important stones are placed in the Galaxy 1000 for initial mapping. The final mapping is done with the microscope and the Helium M Box.

	The technician used the Helium M Box and the microscope to plot a rough diamond’s surface-reaching feather, which is marked in green. Photo by Pedro Padua, © GIA, courtesy of Chow Tai Fook, Yueshun Fook Jewellery and Diamond Co.
At the end of the tour of the planning and marking area, the group’s expert guide, Simon, reviewed the machines being utilized: the Sarin DiaMark-Z, the Sarin Galaxy 1000, and the Helium M Box system. The Sarin DiaMark-Z is fast, easy to use, and accurate. It’s generally used for rough in SI1 and higher clarity grades. This instrument is not as capable as the other instruments at handling more-included rough, mapping out inclusions, or determining the cutting options for challenging rough.

After sorting, planning, and marking, the information for the rough is input into Chow Tai Fook’s proprietary software system, which tracks the rough and all decisions made throughout the manufacturing process. The first information recorded is the weight of the rough and the planned weight of the cut stones. The papers holding the rough are barcoded for scanning, and have areas where all the information can be recorded as it travels through the manufacturing process. After the information is input, the rough is ready to move on to the next stage—sawing.

	After planning and marking, it is critical to input data for tracking purposes. Photo by Pedro Padua, © GIA, courtesy of Chow Tai Fook, Yueshun Fook Jewellery and Diamond Co.
Chow Tai Fook’s software system can also track worker productivity and quality control. At every production stage, each worker’s production capacity—how many stones they can do in a day and in a week—is recorded. This information is then compiled into a graph. If any worker is not able to meet production standards, a management team works with them to determine how to raise their productivity. The tracking system is linked to the Sarin system. Salaries are linked directly to productivity.

	Sawing the Rough
Next, the GIA team witnessed the rough diamond sawing process. The first sawing system the team observed was the LMJ Laser Water Microjet. This advanced laser sawing process incorporates a continuous flow of water that keeps the rough diamond surface cool, helping to prevent breakage from heat. The laser beam is focused and guided into a hair-thin, low-pressure water jet to precisely target the material being sawn. The laser actually goes through the water to the diamond. This is considered an important advantage over more traditional dry lasers.

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	The factory uses laser technology for sawing and bruting.
Most lasers saw diamonds in a “V” shaped laser pattern. The Laser Water Microjet system uses an “I” shaped pattern with a 40-micron opening. This results in less weight loss than with the “V” shaped pattern: less than 1% for diamond rough over 1.5 carats. Simon estimated the speed of the LMJ laser to be twice that of older green-laser models, with 50% less weight loss. The “I” shaped laser pattern results in a uniform opening from the top of the cut to the bottom. The hot carbon vapor typically associated with laser diamond cutting is evacuated with the flow of water, resulting in a cleaner and smoother surface

Chow Tai Fook also makes use of green lasers for sawing diamonds. The green lasers are probably the most common lasers for sawing diamonds. They’re respected for low weight loss, minimal breakage, and production of smooth sawn surfaces. The green laser sawing machines are programmed during the day to saw multiple diamonds held in cassettes, operating all night without any employees present.

To set up the process, the technician aligns cross hairs on the sawing marks for all the diamonds in the cassette via a screen. Then the diamonds’ dimensions are programmed into the instrument’s computer, which can then saw the diamonds automatically.

Diamond sawing with both systems occurs during the normal 6-to-6 work shift. Then the green lasers are programmed to saw multiple diamonds through the night and into the next morning, when technicians pair up the sawn-off pieces and place them in the proper parcel papers.

Chow Tai Fook also uses lasers to cut the outlines of most of their fancy-shape diamonds. This process is much faster and more efficient for fancy shapes than traditional bruting methods.

	Bruting and Coning
Next stop on the tour was the bruting department, where round stone shapes are created after sawing. In the bruting machine, the diamond is rotated at high speed while it’s being rubbed against a flat-surfaced wheel charged with diamond grit and water. The water keeps the heat from the friction down and lessens the chance of damage to the diamond. A one-carat stone takes about ten minutes to form, with its girdle bruted and polished. The process takes about 6 to 7 minutes for a 0.50-carat diamond and 12 to 13 minutes for a two-carat diamond.

	Round brilliant diamonds are bruted against spinning wheels coated with diamond grit and flowing water. Photo by Eric Welch, © GIA, courtesy of Chow Tai Fook, Yueshun Fook Jewellery and Diamond Co.
While lasers are efficient for forming fancy shapes, Chow Tai Fook does not use them for bruting round-brilliant cut diamonds. The speed is about the same for laser bruting as for bruting with diamond grit, but with laser bruting there’s more risk of stone damage.

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	Bruting and coning form the basic shapes of the girdle and pavilion.
After bruting forms the round shape, the next stop is the so-called coning department, where a similar process is used to create the pavilion. This process is much faster than traditional blocking.

The desired pavilion angle is drawn with a red line. During the bruting of the pavilion, diamond rough is polished away until the red line is reached. This method shapes the pavilion in about 15 minutes compared to 3 hours for traditional blocking. The time needed to shape the pavilion is highly dependent upon the shape of the rough. Pavilions of fancy shapes are still blocked with a polishing wheel.

	Pre-polishing Quality Control
Next, the team visited the quality control department, where the diamonds are inspected after each manufacturing stage to make sure there are no errors before continuing. This is especially important before the labor-intensive last polishing step.

The different colors of the parcel papers are used to identify the suppliers, such as blue for DTC or purple for Alrosa, and also to create a visual management system. Here, the GIA team witnessed a diamond with an already-polished pavilion being checked for polish and symmetry while still in the dop.

	Parcel papers are color-coded to identify the supplier. Photo by Pedro Padua, © GIA, courtesy of Chow Tai Fook, Yueshun Fook Jewellery and Diamond Co.

	The quality of the pavilion’s polish and symmetry is carefully checked at this stage. Photo by Eric Welch, © GIA, courtesy of Chow Tai Fook, Yueshun Fook Jewellery and Diamond Co.

	Polishing
In the diamond-polishing area of the factory, the team could not help but notice the polishers’ intense concentration levels. Visits to diamond-cutting factories around the world have never revealed a higher degree and intensity of focus among polishers.

Demonstrating a high degree of skill and precision, the polishers constantly checked the polish and facet placement with a loupe. Throughout the polishing process, they repeatedly touched the diamond to the scaife and then quickly lifted it to check it with the loupe. For polishing the pavilion, the tang has clicks related to the pavilion facets. Each time one facet’s polish is complete, the polisher clicks to another pavilion facet. A knob on the tang allows for fine tuning of the angle. The polisher adjusts this knob constantly while checking the polish and facet placement.

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	The final polishing stage is a long, careful process.
The polishing speed depends on several factors, including the shape of the rough, the presence of surface graining, clarity considerations, and the shape of the finished stone. For typical octahedral, sawable rough with no complications, it takes about two hours of total polishing time—about one hour for the pavilion and about one hour for the crown—to produce a one-carat round brilliant.

	Final Quality Control
After polishing, all the diamonds go to the grading department for the final quality-control step. Cut is the first quality factor to be graded. Stones 30 points and above are all graded with the microscope. Stones of this size are sent to a gemological laboratory for grading reports, so it is imperative that the polish and symmetry be checked carefully before they leave the factory. Chow Tai Fook wants to make sure the cut grades they receive on reports are up to their standards and their customers’ requirements.

	Diamonds 30 points and above are cut-graded with a microscope. For stones under 30 points, graders use a loupe. Photo by Eric Welch, © GIA, courtesy of Chow Tai Fook, Yueshun Fook Jewellery and Diamond Co.
For smaller stones, grading is done with a loupe. The grader uses a typical overhead daylight-equivalent fluorescent light and a white pad. They separate diamonds into piles based on their quality or to indicate specific re-works such as scratches on the table, polish lines, etc.

After cut grading, the diamonds are color graded. Graders use daylight equivalent fluorescent overhead light, a white folded card, and masterstones. Chow Tai Fook prefers the accuracy of their graders’ eyes over any color-grading machines. By far, most of the graders are women. Chow Tai Fook has found that women tend to be more patient, focused, detail oriented, and accurate when it comes to grading.

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	After polishing, all diamonds go to the grading department.
The final grading step is for clarity. Like cut grading, stones 30 points and above are clarity graded with a microscope. Smaller stones are graded with a loupe. For stones under 30 points, the clarity-grading classifications are broader and not as fine. They grade these diamonds into VVS, VS, SI, and I grades without further classifying them as VVS1 or VVS2, etc. Clarity grading is very fast for these stones, with the grader grabbing a stone in the tweezers girdle to girdle for a quick look through the crown facets and then the pavilion.

	Conclusion
The Panyu, China, area, which includes Foshan, is known around the world as a gem cutting and jewelry manufacturing center, and with good reason. Several factors contribute to the success of the area’s industry. China markets the high quality of the country’s cutting factories in a campaign called China Cut.

While labor costs are lower than in areas like Antwerp and Belgium, Chow Tai Fook reports that their polishers earn 45 percent more than those in Surat, India, and that their labor costs increase about 15 percent a year. Chow Tai Fook maintains high standards of cut quality and markets top-quality cuts globally.

With such a careful process and so many dedicated and skilled workers, it’s no wonder Chow Tai Fook is well known globally for its diamond-cutting expertise. @topic:7


Publish Year: 2013 Title: The Ellendale Diamond Field: Exploration History, Discovery, Geology, and Mining Abstract: The Ellendale diamond field in West Kimberley is one of only three hard-rock diamond mine locations in Australia. Though not the first Australian diamond mine, Ellendale was the country’s first hard-rock deposit. It holds a special place in world diamond history as it led in November 1976 to the recognition of a new host-rock for diamond, olivine lamproite. Up until that time, commercial-sized diamonds were considered to be sourced only from kimberlite. The Ellendale lamproites are geologically very young, only 22 Ma (million of years) old. Within several years of the initial discovery, some 46 lamproite pipes were found at Ellendale. By 1980, 38 of these pipes had been assessed for their diamond content.

	More than two decades later, geologists from the Kimberley Diamond Company (KDC) recognized eluvial diamond enrichment over these pipes. After a lengthy legal battle, they wrested the Ellendale mining lease from the Ashton Joint Venture and commenced mining there in May 2002. Ellendale is recognized as a source of high-value fancy yellow diamonds. These high priced stones have been marketed through a special deal with Tiffany & Co since 2009. But the future of mining there is tenuous. Ellendale 4 was closed in 2009, and the high Australian dollar, combined with dwindling reserves, may jeopardize the survival of Ellendale 9.

Abstracted by Guy Lalous @topic:2


Publish Year: 2013 Title: Book Review: Handbook of Spectral Lines in Diamond, Volume 1: Tables and Interpretations Abstract: The author has documented both published and unpublished results of more than 2,500 entries assigned to more than 400 optical centers. He includes information on spectral lines for natural diamonds, both treated and untreated, as well as synthetic diamonds, HPHT and CVD. He also explores a variety of impurity defects in diamond: nitrogen, boron, hydrogen, and silicon, among others.

The collection of data is presented in 203 tables, in which the author provides an interpretation and analysis of spectra and the assignment of structures to the optical centers. Tables in the appendices include historical, existing, and new names of defect centers or lines in diamond.

Reviewed by GIA Library Staff
Carlsbad, California @topic:4


Publish Year: - Title: Type Ib Diamond Formation and Preservation in the West African Lithospheric Mantle: Re–Os Age Constraints from Sulphide Inclusions in Zimmi Diamonds Abstract: This article was published in Precambrian Research 286, 152-166.

	Abstract
Ten sulphide inclusions in three diamonds from the Zimmi (West Africa) alluvial diamond locality were analysed for their bulk Fe–Cu–Ni–Co contents and Re–Os isotopic compositions. The host diamonds are exceptionally rare, Ib types that still preserve isolated nitrogen (C centres), rather than more common nitrogen pairs (A centres) and nitrogen aggregates (B centres). C centres in Zimmi diamonds require that they did not experience temperatures above 850 °C for any extended period. Such diamonds make up less than 0.1 % of natural gem diamonds and have never before been dated. The sulphides are pyrrhotite-rich, have low Ni and Os contents, and radiogenic 187Os/188Os, all features characteristic of eclogitic sulphides. Each diamond has 3–4 individual inclusions. 187Re/188Os and 187Os/188Os data fall along three individual ~650 Ma age arrays that represent essentially 3-point or 4-point mineral isochrons for each diamond – unambiguously dating the time of diamond formation. The ~650 Ma age correlates with the timing of Neoproterozoic assembly of Gondwana, recorded in the Rokelide orogen along the SW margin of the West African craton. The initial 187Os/188Os of the three age arrays fall between 1.6 and 2.2 and are highly radiogenic compared to chondritic mantle at 650 Ma. Along with low Re/Os ratios, these data suggests that sulphides were not derived from Neoproterozoic subducting slabs, but rather from older eclogitic material already present in the West African lithospheric mantle. The age of the diamonds and their nitrogen substitutional characteristics, along with their residence in a lithospheric mantle with a normal cratonic geotherm (determined here from Koidu clinopyroxene xenocrysts) suggests that after diamond formation they were rapidly exhumed to shallower depths in the lithosphere. This likely occurred through tectonic uplift following Neoproterozoic continental collision.

Purchase the full article.

aGemological Institute of America, 50 West 47th Street, New York City, NY 10036, USA

bDepartment of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution for Science, 5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA @topic:8


Publish Year: - Title: Winter 2010 G&G Book Reviews Abstract: “Blood on the Stone: Greed, Corruption, and War in the Global Diamond Trade”
By Ian Smillie, 252 pp., publ. by Anthem Press [www.anthempress.com], London, 2010. US$29.95

“Jewellery in the Age of Queen Victoria: A Mirror to the World”
By Charlotte Gere and Judy Rudoe, 552 pp., illus., publ. by The British Museum Press [www.britishmuseumshoponline.org], London, 2010. £50.00

“Amethyst Uruguay”
By Reinhard Balzer, 304 pp., illus., publ. by Christian Weise Verlag [www.lapis.de], Munich, 2009. US$65

“The Fancy Color Diamond Book: Facts & Secrets of Trading in Rarities”
By Eden Rachminov, 231 pp., illus., publ. by Diamond Odyssey [www.diamondodyssey.org], Tel Aviv, 2009. US$215.00

“Agates and Jaspers”
By Ron Gibbs, 239 pp., illus., publ. by theimage.com [www.theimagebooks.com], Wedington, NC, 2009, US$40.00

“Minerals & Precious Stones of Brazil”
By Carlos Cornejo and Andrea Bartorelli, 704 pp., illus., publ. by Solaris [www.solariseditora.com.br], São Paulo, Brazil, 2010, R$148.00

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:6