Milan: With fewer than seven weeks to go to the opening of the 2023 CIBJO Congress in Jaipur, India, on October 3, 2023, the fourth of the pre-congress Special Reports has been released. Prepared by the CIBJO Diamond Commission, headed by Udi Sheintal, the report looks at how changes in industry standards and nomenclature are affected by developing geopolitical situations, technological developments and shifting consumer sentiment.
“Extraneous and external factors, which we are subject to but often have very little influence over, are often the catalysts for change,” writes Mr. Sheintal in the opening of the report. But, he adds: “Our decisions are made on the basis of most accurate and verifiable knowledge that we are able to gather, and we use this to protect the interest of consumers, whom we fervently believe are entitled to absolute and honest transparency. The decision to purchase a diamond, or any other gemstone or item of jewellery, is theirs alone. What we seek to make possible is that, when they make it, they have all the information they require.”
The Special Report addresses recent claims that technologies have developed that are able to accurately identify the exact location at which rough diamond has been mined. “As a matter of principle, the CIBJO Diamond Commission welcomes all efforts to advance research and development in the industry, but insists that any claim be supported by verifiable evidence and that results be repeatable,” Mr. Sheintal states.
But, he continues, “we can only state with confidence is what is known at present,” noting a May 2023 study by the Gemological Institute of America that declared that to date there has not been published any scientifically robust study verifying independent provenance determination of a random individual diamond.
The Special Report provides an update into work being done within the framework of the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) on the prospective International Standard 6893, which covers quality control of diamonds of 0.25 carats and less. CIBJO’s Diamond Commission Vice President Jean-Pierre Chalain is the convenor of the working group overseeing the ISO project.
The Special Report concludes with a tribute to who the Diamond Commission President refers as three of the industry’s “finest sons,” who passed away this year within two months of each other – Roland Naftule, Harry Levy and Gabi Tolkowsky.
“They were of a similar age and blessed with long careers – individually quite different from one another, but at the same similarly committed to professional excellence and the industry’s legacy,” Mr. Sheintal writes.
