Synthetic diamonds recovered from parcels

Diamantaires in Indian diamond industry are reeling under shock after a large number of synthetic diamonds were recovered from diamond parcels sold to two big companies.

Sources in the market said that a Japanese client of a DTC sightholder company has sent back the diamond parcel after half of the stones were detected as 'synthetic'. Similarly, another Mumbai-based company received around 50 per cent of synthetic stones in parcel sold by a local trader. A total of 30 to 50 carat of synthetic diamonds were mixed with the parcels of original diamonds.

Sources that synthetic stones are mixed in diamond parcels of the natural polished and they are in circulation. Since it is very difficult to detect synthetic diamonds, the merchants cannot not identify the synthetic stones and sell it to the big and medium export companies.

The mixing of synthetic stones is mostly done in small sized stones known as 'stars' and 'melee'. These types of diamonds have a huge market in Japan, US and India.

"We are yet to confirm the issue. There are messages about the synthetic stones being recovered from the natural diamond parcels," said an office-bearer of Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC). Vipul Shah, chairman of GJEPC, was not available for comments.

The Australia based DCLA is the only Laboratory that guarantees all diamonds have been tested and are natural.