Ernie Blom, President of the WFDB, and the Tom Moses, GIA execultive vice president and chief laboratory and research officer, announced that an agreement has been made between these two world bodies. GIA (Gemological Institute of America) will provide a machine to assist with the detection of synthetic diamonds to member bourses.
    The WFDB is committed to enforcing its stand of "zero tolerence" in the non-disclosure of synthetic stones. The assitance offered by GIA with making these machines available to member bourses will be of great assistance in the detection of illegal mixing of synthetic and natural diamonds.

     A range of dimaond and jewelry industry organizations will take part in a meeting organized by the Diamond Manufacturers & Importers Assocation of America (DMIA) following and urgent call by the body last month to host an industry-wide meeting in New York City about measures to prevent synthetic diamonds being presented as natural diamonds.

    The meeting will be held under the banner of the DMIA, the Diamond Dealers Club of New York (DDC), the Indian Diamond and Color Stone Association (IDCA), and the Natural Color Diamond Association (NCDIA), said DMIA President Ronnie VanderLinden.

     "We have already engaged law enforcement agencies and have received confirmations from national organization such as Jewelers of America (JA), the American Gem Society (AGS), the Manufacturing Jewelers & Suppliers of America (MJSA) and the Jewelers Vigilance Committee(JVC), " Said VanderLinden.

     "Also, three major gem labs that service our industry are on board; the Gemological Institute of American (GIA), the International Gemological Institute (IGI) and the European Gemological Laboratory (EGL USA) We are confident that his meeting will result in strong measures that will have real teech, " he added.

     "We noted earlier that one of the major obstacles in attacking this issue was the lack of cohesion from industry stakeholders. Withnessed by the strong response from our partners we are building that cohesion.

     "We strive for a single-minded and enforceable joint resolution to half synthetics being mixed into parcels of natural diamonds by repeat offenders. Those who defraud the industry will pay a heavy price. "he said.

    Having built its reputation on Zambian emerald, Gemfields Plc, the London-based coloured stone miner, is seekimg rubies. The company has set its sights on Mozambique, where it owns a majority stake in a mine that it hopes could supply up to a fifth of global ruby demand.

    In 2012, the miner acquired a 75 percent stake in Montepuez Ruby Mining in northern Mozambique, a 131-square-mile concession considered the largest ruby-mining concession in private hands in the world today, according to Gemfields. CEO lan Harebottle said that the companyplans to more than double the mine's monthly ruby production to 2.5 million carats by July.

    "Our first rough ruby auction will take place in the first half of 2014, so the market can expect to see cut and polished not long after that," lan Harebottle said, "We're to offer a new opportunity for marketing and selling rubies, particularty in the U.S., and we are seeing real enthusiasm for the product at all different levels".

    Australia's wild pearl oyster beds have been fished continuously since the mid-1800's for Pinctada maxima, the world's largest species of pearl oyster that has yielded many of the world's large saltwater natural pearls. GIA sought to conduct research in Australia with Paspaley's assistance as the country's seas are home to the world's last commercially active fishery for wild Pinctada maxima oysters. According to Kenneth Scarratt, GIA managing director for Southeast Asia, several recent expeditions by GIA into the waters off the Australian Northwest Coast resulted in the acquisition of many natural and cultured pearls that have produced excellent data that will enable GIA to establish impeccable test criteria for its pearl identification teams.

    "Resolving the issues involved in differentiating natural from saltweter non bead cultured pearls has been a focus of GIA's research group for some time," said Scarratt. "Meeting these challenges and using the results to serve GIA's public benefit mission is what makes this kind of research so rewarding and important." A recent expedition that coincided with a Paspaley wild shell collection programme, gathering large Pinctada maxima shell for use in the Mother of Pearl industry, yielded the Institute's most extraordinary results thus far.

    In late September and early October, GIA pearl researchers Aritaya Homkrajae and Areeya Manustrong spent ten days aboard Paspaley's diving ship MV Marilynne, during which they discovered and extracted 776 natural pearls from 20,488 large wild oysters. A majority of these pearls were small "seed" pearls, with the smallest mesuring under 1 mm in diameter, and the largest, a rare pearl measuring 16mm diameter. Prior to this expedition, there were few opportunities for gemmological labobratories to examine a significant number of undrilled natural Pinctada maxima pearls of confirmed provenance, meaning previously that their origins were determined only by examiing their internal structures and provenance 'assumed'. This sample will let GIA compare waht is understood about natural structures with undrilled pearls known to be natural.

    "This was a unique opportunity to gather speciemens from an important and well-known source," said Artitaya Homkrajae, GIA pearl researcher. "Establishing explicit provenance for the samples will support a great deal of further research, " added Areeya Manustrong.

    These 776 natural pearls, along with their shells, now reside in GIA's laboratory in Bangkok. In the coming months, extensive research will be carried out using in-house high resolution real-time microradiography and micro CT imaging, as well as detailed chemical analyses and the application of other test methods.

    As partof GIA's public benefit mission, a full and detailed report will be prepared and published in the coming months that will help clarify and establish clearer criteria for the interpretation of various data collected during the normal laboratory examination of pearls.