Diamond News Archives
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(IDEX Online) - An Australian professor is using laser technology to identify "stray" Argyle pink diamonds.
John Watling, a former Argle physicist and Professor of Forensic and Analytical Chemistry at University of Western Australia has set up a lab in Perth that "fingerprints" diamonds.
It allows him to trace them back to their original source - not just the mine, but the individual kimberlite pipe, using what he calls "inorganic DNA".
He specializes in super-rare pink diamonds. They have been in ever greater demand since the iconic Argyle mine, in Western Australia - which supplied 90 per cent of the world's supply - closed in November 2020 after almost four decades.
"We are looking for particular emissions from the stones that uniquely identify them as being Argyle," Mr Chapman told ABC News.
He said his bread and butter was people who suspected their diamond might be an Argyle pink. One man bought a stone from Cash Converters - the pawnbroker and second hand store - and was delighted to discover it was indeed an Argyle pink.
Many genuine Argyle pinks don't have mine-issued certificates of authenticity. From 1985, when it opened, until 2016, Argyle only certified stones over 0.50-cts. In addition, there are many cases when the stone and the certificate have been separated over the years.
Pic shows Argyle pinks...
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(IDEX Online) - Raiders broke open the safe at an Indian polishing unit and stole over 16,000 diamonds.
They struck while it was closed for the Raksha Bandhan festival on 11 August.
The factory in Dediapada, 70 miles from Surat, employs 100 workers in an area dominated by tribal communities.
The raid came to light when a manager went to open the factory after the festival and found the main doors had been forced open.
The thieves took 4,483 finished diamonds and 11,666 that were partially polished, plus a sum of cash.
Factory owner Hiteshbhai Dewani, who has five other polishing units, told the Indian Express: "We have been in the business for two decades. This is first such incident in our factories. We will take all measures to prevent such incidents in future."
Generic pic of diamond polishing...
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(IDEX Online) - Income tax officials in India posed as a 250-strong wedding party in a series of raids that netted undeclared gold, diamonds and cash worth $49m.
The Income Tax department (IT) used 120 vehicles in the operation, decked out for a baarati, or the wedding procession that accompanies a bridegroom to the venue.
They raided premises, warehouses, and farmhouses linked to two steel, clothing, and real estate businesses in the Jalna and Aurangabad districts of Maharashtra state.
The officers seized $7m in cash, 32 kgs of gold, and diamonds worth $1.7m....