Boycotting “bloody” diamonds from warring nations sounds like a noble
cause, but I’m curious as to how this could be accomplished. My
admittedly limited knowledge of the diamond trade (GIA education) is
that most diamonds are controlled through the DeBeers cartel. If
"laundered" through DeBeers in this way what hope do you have of
labeling the ones you wish to boycott? Or, if the rough is sold
directly to a cutting house, cut, and a dealer buys the parcel, how
could they know the source of the individual gems?
Is this possible - to know? Some of you experienced buyers may be
able to answer…
Just curious,
Joyce
There are so few conflict diamonds out there that it realy is an
image issue. Almost all cutters know the origion of the “sites” they
buy. It certianly is possible that there are conflict diamonds
peppered in these sites but it is a minute amount, less than a
percent.
Joel McFadden
Dear Joyce,
thank you for asking how one can tell which diamonds are what,
politically. I would like to know the answer too. Over forty years of
being in the jewellery trade and working most of that time with
diamonds hasn’t given me a convincing answer. Looking forward to
enlightenment.
Kind regards,
Rex from Oz
DeBeers is no longer controlling the market in the way they used to.
There is no true way to determine where diamonds come from. There are
attempts currently being made to seal rough parcels coming out of
Africa as a means of identifying source and De Beers along with a
number of other trade organizations are working fairly hard to try to
stem the flow of “blood” diamonds. Unfortunately, as I have said
before on this forum, as jewelers, we always deal with items with a
high intrinsic value that are easily portable and that have
historically been used to finance everything from wars to crusades to
illicit love affairs. How do you think the Columbian rebels are
paying for their weapons? How about the Tamils in Sri Lanka? If we
cease to use everything that has led to a conflict at one time or
another we might as well all throw in the towel and become computer
programmers.
Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Spirer Somes Jewelers
1794 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02140
617-491-6000
@spirersomes
www.spirersomes.com
One way to avoid 'Bloody" diamonds is to buy Canadian! There is at
least 2 mines , Akati and Diavik, providing diamonds from the
Canadian North. They are being cut there as well, and Laser marked on
the girdle to Identify them. Look up www.elanda.com for info! Thats
my bosses site, and you can see jewellery I have made while you are there. karen
Joel,
I am going to drop back in on this. The current statistics that the
trade organizations are using is that approximately 2% of the
diamonds entering the marketplace are conflict diamonds.
Unfortunately most cutters do not know the origin of the stones they
are cutting. Since de Beers has, until the last two years, controlled
the marketplace, and has consistently stockpiled huge quantities of
rough material, it is impossible for most cutters to know where or
even when the stones were mined. The only cutters who do know are
ones like Lazare Diamond who buy a significant amount of their rough
directly (and even they won’t say they aren’t getting some conflict
diamonds mixed in), or people who might deal directly with mines like
Argyle in Australia. But if you read my previous post on this you’ll
know that I just don’t think there is much we can do as jewelers
about this.
Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Spirer Somes Jewelers
1794 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02140
617-491-6000
@spirersomes
www.spirersomes.com
All, We as end users of products that finance evil actions of others
should not stop using these products. The products themselves are
innocent, but the people using them are ones we as a Global Community
need to take action against. Be it a diamond or a gun the people
behind the worlds atrocities will continue to find ways to torture
and terrorize the rest of the population. These people must be dealt
with. We know who they are, but because the rest of us have morals
and follow laws we are unable to bring these true criminals to
justice. That is the problem. Not the diamonds or the guns. Evil
people and societies that cannot effectively deal with them are the
problem.
Gerry Galarneau
I do not think that I sent out the post to imply that jewelers should
stop using diamonds, or any other material for that matter, because of
their links to conflict and bloodshed, not to mention their impact on
the environment. The name “clean diamond” is misleading, there is no
such thing as a clean diamond, clean gold, clean platinum, etc… I
agree that most people wouldn’t be able to do much of anything if we
felt we couldn’t use things that could be harmful to others in any
way. I do feel that we should make our voices heard on this issue
because we are using diamonds. We should take every step possible to
make sure our materials are not coming from illicit sources. Someone
is buying these stones and they are ending up in the US as cut goods.
I realize the diamond industry is working on finding ways to stop the
influx of “conflict stones” in the marketplace, but I feel more can
be done.
I won’t go into what I personally feel about de Beers because that’s
a whole other issue. -Juliet Gamarci