Diamond Screening and Verification

Keep your diamonds 100% natural

Nothing beats the time-honoured beauty of natural diamonds, made exclusive by the effects of nature and the passage of time. It’s no surprise that they’ve become a luxury, and owning them has become a privilege… but now, their purity and exclusivity is under threat.

Laboratory-grown diamonds, also known as synthetic diamonds, can be mass-produced and are flooding the market. If they become mixed in with natural diamonds, this can ruin the value of your stock and your jewellery. Whether this happens intentionally or not, this may even leave you legally vulnerable to your clients, with your reputation at stake.

For this reason, Pala Diamonds has a zero-tolerance policy for undisclosed lab-grown diamonds, synthetics and simulants. To do this, we rely on a team of expertly qualified and experienced diamond graders. We’ve also invested in the best technology available to screen 100% of the diamonds passing through our sorting office.

“My current supplier provides written guarantees of authenticity for natural diamonds.”

No reputable supplier or jewellery manufacturer wants to risk mis-selling lab-grown diamonds as natural diamonds. However, lab-grown diamonds are flooding the market, and very few suppliers have the expensive, state-of-the-art equipment required to authenticate them.

When goods are entering and leaving a supplier’s premises, there is always the potential for batches of diamonds to become compromised, especially melee diamonds. Suppliers may mis-sell diamonds unintentionally. Accidents such as mislabelling or mis-assorting when in-house may also occur. However it happens, the ramifications for your business can be serious.

• Legal ramifications for mis-selling products under the Sale of Goods Act 1979, including legal damages awarded to customers, government fines or even criminal charges
• Damage to your reputation from bad reviews or claims that you are mis-representing your goods

If consumers aren’t sure whether they’re buying real or synthetic diamonds, wavering confidence in  the market could negatively impact everyone. Already, there is an increasing trend in customers seeking third-party verification from qualified valuers and valuation bodies, such as Safeguard or De Beers. As a jewellery maker, you must take the best protective measures available to ensure your natural diamonds have 100% legitimate natural origin.

Responsibility for preserving the industry reputation lies with us all

Contamination of natural melee diamond parcels is a key concern as their size, between 0.50 – 4.00mm, makes verifying each one difficult and time-consuming without the right equipment. However, Pala Diamonds believe that everyone involved in the diamond industry has a responsibility to protect our collective reputation and industry-wide confidence in natural diamonds.

De Beers SynthDetect™ and De Beers AMS2

Pala Diamonds have invested heavily in technology to protect the integrity of our product. After rigorous testing and research into the accuracy of machines from different providers, we believe that De Beers machinery is the most effective, reliable and accurate. Few in the diamond industry have the experience that De Beers have, and as one of the most significant diamond mining companies, few have such an incentive to ensure real diamonds get sold with full disclosure. This fact, and the knowledge that De Beers Ignite have a Research & Development facility here in the U.K., are why we have invested in and rely on the following technology:

De Beers AMS2

De Beers AMS2 is their flagship automated melee screening machine. It can screen as many as 3,600 near-colourless to colourless diamonds per hour, in sizes as small as 0.001 carats. This suits us perfectly as melee is our main niche for diamonds, although it can also screen and attest small rounds and fancy-shaped diamonds between 0.01 – 0.20ct.

The AMS2 can effortlessly ween-out both CVD (Chemical Vapour Deposition) and HPHT (High Pressure High Temperature) lab-grown synthetics as well as non-diamond stones, although a small number are also referred for further careful inspection. This is standard practice everywhere but the high speed and low referral rate for the AMS2 make it so efficient that we can screen 100% of our merchandise, rather than take a sample and hope it represents an entire batch. This high-tech approach is the reason we can be so confident in what we sell.

Automated screening of melee diamonds removes human error, resulting in quick, reliable and objective testing. In fact, incorporating this technology has allowed us to strengthen our guarantee against synthetic or lab-grown diamonds. We guarantee the authenticity for 100% of goods passing through our sorting office so that you can trade with confidence. Essentially, our guarantee to you becomes your guarantee to your customer. The diamonds you sell are your reputation and our reputation, so eliminate the risk and trust our diligence.

De Beers SynthDetectTM

De Beers SynthDetectTM accurately assesses both mounted diamonds and loose stones. Our staff are trained extensively in use of the machine, and we have become experts in detecting the most obscure types of synthetic stones. To do this, we rely on SynthDetect’sTM enhanced ability to detect CVD and HPHT diamonds.

We use SynthDetectTM for referred diamonds to precisely determine whether stones are synthetics or to re-examine any false positives. This represents a carefully considered methodology of processing, determined through the use of technology, careful training and years of expertise. And it is this method and confidence we believe offers far more peace of mind than any paper guarantee from our competitors.

Pala Diamonds are proud suppliers of natural diamonds. Our expert team are on hand to answer your questions, advise you on the best stone for your designs and support your business in producing beautiful, quality diamond jewellery. Contact us with any questions; we’re happy to help you.