GIA looking at diamond origin tracking service

Rob Bates

The potential service could track a diamond through the supply chain.

It’s not just miners such as De Beers and Alrosa that are looking at tracking the origin of diamonds. The Gemological Institute of America is, too.

The GIA has confirmed talk that chief laboratory and research officer Tom Moses discussed a diamond origin tracking service at the recent JCK show in Las Vegas. While GIA offers origin reports for some colored stones, this would potentially involve tracking a diamond’s movements.

We are looking at a service that would track a diamond through the supply chain,” says spokesperson Stephen Morisseau. “It would be a service we could potentially offer.

Obviously, this raises more questions than answers, but no other information on the service, or how it would work, was available at press time.

According to Rio Tinto, 67 percent of consumers put a value on a diamond’s origin, and 75 percent say they care how diamonds are mined.

Source JCK Online