Invisible engravings, ethical diamonds: the technology that tracks stones from mine to market
Worldwide legal guidelines prohibit the commerce of diamonds from nations in battle, however for now, it’s unattainable to make certain of the origin of the valuable stones. A Polish laboratory has discovered the answer.
May the diamond in your engagement ring come from a rustic in battle, like Russia? Not legally, and there’s now a expertise developed by a European venture in Poland that might stop it from occurring illegally sooner or later.
Barbara Dembowska runs her diamond gross sales enterprise within the Polish metropolis of Poznań. Its treasured stones solely come from trusted suppliers in Belgium, France or Italy, however in actuality not even their certificates can assure the origin 100 per cent. New applied sciences developed by Nanores, a laboratory in Wroclaw, are revolutionary on this respect.
Barbara explains that “If a brooch consisting of, say, 20, 30 or 50 stones from a recognized firm comprises data inside it concerning the firm, for instance Cartier or Harry Winston, similar to initials saying that these stones belong to this firm, in case of theft, this stone turns into unsellable.”
The worldwide battle towards the trafficking of blood diamonds
Blood diamonds, also called battle diamonds or soiled diamonds, are stones mined in struggle zones and bought to finance armed conflicts, human rights violations and illicit actions.
To fight the commerce in battle diamonds, the so-called Kimberley Course of, a certification system that imposes strict necessities on the traceability of diamonds, making certain that these traded come from authorized and sustainable sources, was launched internationally in 2000. Member nations notably be certain that imported diamonds don’t originate from nations in battle.
In recent times, the European Union has added Russia to the record of banned nations.
Regardless of progress, the system has weaknesses. There are nonetheless escape routes and lack of management in some areas, which permit blood diamonds to enter the market.
Nanotechnology in assist of the regulation
The diamond monitoring expertise developed by Nanores is known as Diamond ID.
The venture, which price Nanores greater than Euro 2.2 million, was financed to the tune of virtually Euro 1.75 million by the European Cohesion Coverage. It was examined on surfaces of 500×500 micrometres. A micrometre is a millionth of a meter.
However why is there a necessity for this expertise? What’s the present scenario and what’s progressive about this venture?
From mine to shopper
“At current,” replies the venture supervisor, Magdalena Kołda, “diamonds are solely marked when they’re polished. A mark is then positioned on the stone’s floor. However no figuring out mark is positioned initially of the cycle, and it is rather essential to have the ability to hint the diamond from the start.”
The aim is to have the ability to engrave the marking contained in the diamond on the microscopic degree from the second of mining. This could stop the marking from being eliminated, as it isn’t on the floor and never seen, and would assure the traceability of the stone from the origin to the top shopper.
Diamond ID is mixed with one other expertise, a “digital twin.” It signifies that a digital copy of the diamond marking will probably be saved in a database. And that’s what you will discover in your diamond in a few years, as soon as the expertise is patented and put available on the market. A assured completely moral diamond.
