ALROSA Group, the world’s top diamond producer, demonstrated the first domestically-made commercial device that permits to identify diamonds of natural and synthetic origin – ALROSA Diamond Inspector. The company expects that due to its relatively low price and high accuracy, the detector will enjoy demand both in Russia and abroad. It will help fight down unscrupulous suppliers admixing synthetic stones to natural diamonds.
ALROSA Diamond Inspector can detect polished diamonds made from natural rough diamonds; polished diamonds made from synthetic diamonds; polished diamonds made from natural treated diamonds; as well as non-diamond polished imitations (such simulants as cubic zirconia, moissanite, etc.). Besides, this device allows analyzing both loose diamonds and diamonds set in jewelry.
The device is a joint development project of ALROSA and experts from the Technological Institute of Superhard and New Carbon Materials. The device will be produced and sold by the Diamond Scientific and Technological Center, their joint venture.
“One of the main competitive advantages of ALROSA Diamond Inspector is the simultaneous use of three optical detection methods, which give high reliability of evaluation. This know-how is protected by an international patent and makes it possible to offer these devices at a lower price compared with competitors. The price of our detector is $9,900, while prices for other detectors of a similar class can reach $18,000-20,000,” says Vladimir Sklyaruk, CEO of the Diamond Scientific and Technological Center.
According to him, the new device is intended to become an inexpensive and reliable tool for professionals dealing with diamonds. “The detector is intended primarily for use by manufacturers of jewelry with diamonds, as well as by jewelry stores, pawnshops and gemologists (experts in the field of precious and semiprecious stones) – according to our estimates, the number of potential consumers of such devices around the world may exceed 350,000. Demand for such devices will grow depending on the rate of penetration of undisclosed synthetics into the market,” Vladimir Sklyaruk says.
“Unfortunately, the world’s largest diamond centers registered instances of admixing synthetic rough and polished diamonds to natural stones in recent years. Our device permits to determine the true origin of a polished diamond quickly and with a very high degree of accuracy – whether it was made from a diamond grown in a lab within a couple of weeks or from real natural rough diamond hundreds of millions and even billions of years old.”
The first public display of ALROSA Diamond Inspector was held on March 20, 2018 at a meeting of the Public Expert Council under the Assay Chamber of Russia dedicated to the current issues regarding the circulation of synthetic analogues of precious stones in the Eurasian Economic Union.
