Blood Diamonds

SarahSassy

Just curious ,for all you ladies who assisted with the purchase of any diamonds, if you were knowledgeable as to whether or not they were 'blood diamonds'. Am just curious if its something people are cogniscent of when they are buying diamonds.

I am also curious how you can trace the source of a diamond which you buy, for example, in Weir's / Boodles / any jewellery shop.

tallaght01

I would never ever buy a diamond without asking to see their cert. All diamonds nowadays are certified. I can't remember what the certs are called, but any reputable jeweller will be able to show you theirs.

This is properly a gender issue, as blood diamonds directly contributed to civil wars in Africa. In many cases, those civil wars (or simply the resultant warlord domination of an area) led to the widespread rape of women and girls, aswell as creating millions of refugees. Women and children are most serverely affected by refugee crises.

Remember, too, that, of the 300,000 child soldiers worldwide, a good portion of them were taken by blood diamond warlords.

it's thought to be less of a problem nowadays, but it's still a problem.

Good topic to start a thread about.

SarahSassy

I must admit its a subject I know very little about... I thought though that certs were only given for diamonds over .5 of a carat or something like that. I treated myself to a ring in America years ago which has very small brilliant and baguettes in it.... At this stage its to late but how would you know for sure with small diamonds like that?

Oryx

In my experience, only the larger very expensive diamonds are certified. Cheaper diamond set jewellery will never even have the points mentioned, as its too expensive to have that information available for every piece, especially when the diamonds are miniscule, when it would hinder rather than help the sale. I know on bigger stones they use laser etching or somesuch to idenitfy them, but thats a very elite market. Theres really no way of knowing the provenance of the relatively cheap diamond ring you buy in your local jewellers.

tallaght01

I'm not an expert on the diamond industry, but here's my undertsanding of the process for certification:

1) the country signs up to agree to the process of certification (kimberley certification I think).

2) They can only then export diamonds to other contries who have signed up to the agreement.

3) Every shipment of diamonds leaving the country has to be accompanied by a certificate.

I could be wrong about this. I'm open to corrections.

Anyone know how well adhered to these regulations are? Every tiny cheap diamond doesn't get a cert, but presumably the shop has a cert of some kind to say they only buy kimberley certified diamonds, or that that shipment was certified. Or does the fact that they come from a Kimberley certified country mean that we should feel at ease?

Oryx

All I know is that I spent 11 years working in a small jewellers. We were never approached about this issue at all, and I saw little mention in the UK jewellery media. Reps (again mostly UK based) never talked about it. And we dealt with many companies.

I left 7 years ago though.

tallaght01

I think the certification process was more recent than that. Or was at least started not long before you left.

I could be wrong but I think the UN just started a drive for a certification programme in 2001 or therabouts.

cuckoo

I've actually gone off diamonds all together due to blood diamonds (before finding out more about that i was buying, and being bought, diamonds on a weekly basis, naturally...). I figure that supporting the trade for legit diamonds also creates the demand for non-legit ones.

Also, there is so much price fixing going on with what are little bits of carbon. The 'two months salary' on an engagement ring is also a good example of how the diamond industry manipulates the consumer.

I'm also surprised at how many people will tell me how much was spent on their engagement ring - unprompted and out of the blue. I'll be making the admiring noises while admiring the sparkler and they just announce the price - v odd.

Lauragoesmad

Yeah, too true, Cuckoo!
If me and my boyfriend ever decide to get married, I'm getting cheap stones in my engagement ring and we're spending the cash on the honeymoon!! The ring will look the same to me if its a zirconia or a diamond or whatever so I think I'll go on the holiday of a lifetime instead! As long as the ring doesn't turn my finger green, I don't mind!:)

Oryx

My engagment ring is 18ct and it turns my finger green.....

@cuckoo. The whole diamond trade is controlled by the powers that be, supply is limited to keep the cachet and keep prices high. Of course the customer is manipulated, but its the same with any premium luxury goods.

Sherifu

Lauragoesmad wrote: »

Yeah, too true, Cuckoo!
If me and my boyfriend ever decide to get married, I'm getting cheap stones in my engagement ring and we're spending the cash on the honeymoon!!

That's not a half bad idea.

Black Swan

When talking billions of euros per year in diamonds, and the chance that blood diamonds will get mixed in with the others, you have no absolute guarantee that yours is not a blood diamond, certified or otherwise. Just too much money involved! And even if you could guarantee that your individual stone was not a blood diamond, it is part of a larger world market of diamond trade, that includes blood diamonds, so your diamond is a victim by association (excuse the metaphor). I plan a simple gold band someday, but with an original inscription by The One upon it, which will be worth more to me than any piece of showy carbon.