GIA Sheds Light on De Beers' Synthetics

RAPAPORT... Two white lab-grown diamonds from De Beers' Lightbox brandhave G color and VS clarity, the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) saidafter examining the stones. Lightbox doesn't offer grading reports for its products, andhadn't previously publicized their specific quality characteristics. The GIAobtained the 0.24-carat and 0.26-carat polished stones from a "third-partyvendor," according to Sally Eaton-Maga??a, a senior research scientist at GIA inCarlsbad, who published her findings in the Winter 2018 issue of the institute's quarterly journal, Gems & Gemology. Both stones - intended for a pair of earrings - would havehad VVS clarity had the Lightbox logo inscription not reduced their grades toVS, Eaton-Maga??a observed. The smaller stone had Excellent cut, while thelarger one was considered Very Good. "These samples [published by the GIA], are consistent withour expectations," Sally Morrison, Lightbox's chief marketing officer, toldRapaport News Wednesday. The brand occasionally tests some of its stones toensure they fall within a predictable range, even though it doesn't provide thegrading information to consumers, Morrison added. No HPHT treatment The stones showed no sign of color treatment, unlike many otherchemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamonds, the GIA reported. Most producers growCVD layers quickly, leaving a brown color, knowing they can improve them laterwith High Pressure-High Temperature(HPHT), Eaton-Maga??a explained. For that reason, about 75% of the CVD materialin this color range that the GIA has examined to date had been through HPHT treatmentfollowing growth, she noted. "Other manufacturers with less advanced technology may wellhave to use HPHT treatments to make the color quality acceptable, but we don'tneed to do this," Lightbox's Morrison confirmed. "Like any manufacturingprocess, a small fraction of our stones do fail to meet our rigorous quality criteria.These stones are simply rejected, and we don't sell them." De Beers has previously claimed that its decades ofinvestment in synthetic diamonds have enabled it to offer Lightbox jewelry at therelatively low retail price of $800 per carat. One factor in that is its capacityto grow diamonds with good-enough color to sell untreated, Morrison indicatedWednesday. "All HPHT treatments really do is add cost and complexity tothe manufacturing process," she said. "This may in part explain why someother lab-grown-diamond manufacturers charge higher prices than Lightbox." The company has no problem with other producersHPHT-treating their own synthetic diamonds, even without disclosure, Morrisonargued. "This is already a manufactured product, and it really doesn't matterhow many stages there are to the manufacturing process," she said. Clearly lab-grown The stones were easily detectable as lab-grown, not justbecause of the Lightbox mark. Under spectroscopic analysis, they had verysimilar features to other CVD diamonds the GIA had previously tested,Eaton-Maga??a said. Lightbox's blue and pink stones - which form a largeproportion of its product range but weren't part of the GIA's sample - are alsoreadily identifiable as synthetic because they look significantly differentfrom the equivalent natural diamonds, the scientist added. "Since natural diamonds and lab-grown diamonds are twodifferent products, there would be no reason for us to set out to mimic naturalcolors," Morrison explained. "Instead, the pale-pink and baby-blue colors wereselected for our initial launch based upon consumer research.We tested arange of colors, but most consumers in focus groups definitively preferred thepastel shades that we are currently manufacturing." GIA rethinks its reports The GIA's findings raise an issue about how it gradessynthetics, with the institute revealing it's considering changes to its system.Though Eaton-Maga??a said the Lightbox stones were equivalent to G color, theGIA doesn't currently offer such detail in its grading reports for whitelab-grown diamonds, providing only loose terms ranging from colorless (the topgrade) to light (the lowest). Additionally, its clarity descriptions forsynthetics don't break down VVS, VS, SI or I into any subcategories. Plus, the name of the GIA document, "Synthetic DiamondGrading Report," hasn't always gone down well. Diamond Foundry, a largelab-grown producer, called on the institute to rethink its reports last yearafter the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) removed "synthetic" from its listof recommended descriptors for lab-grown diamonds, and edited "natural" out ofits definition of diamonds. "In the very near future, GIA will finalize and announcechanges to our reports for laboratory-grown diamonds to align with the FTCguides and changes in the market," Stephen Morisseau, the GIA's director ofcorporate communications, said in a statement to Rapaport NewsWednesday. Image: The 0.26-carat lab-grown Lightbox diamond (left), and as seen through DiamondView imaging technology, with the inscription visible (right). (Robison McMurtry/Sally Eaton-Maga??a/GIA)