GIA Tracking Program Gains Traction

RAPAPORT... The Gemological Institute ofAmerica (GIA) has advanced its Mine to Market (M2M) diamond-tracking initiative beyond the pilot stage, the grading center said Monday.  The GIA has signed up"dozens" of retailers, several manufacturers and the majority of rough-diamondproducers to its initiative so far, it said. Through the pilot, the organization has already processed thousands of rough diamonds, ranging in size from 1 caratto over 100 carats, it continued."The M2M program has moved beyond the pilot phase, with a growing number of retailers, manufacturers and producers signing up," Stephen Morisseau, the GIA's director of corporate communications, told Rapaport News. The GIA initially announcedthe M2M pilot at the JCK Las Vegas show last year. The program, developed byGIA scientists, links polished diamonds with their original rough by assessingthe stone at various stages of production. Traders and consumers can view a diamond's journey on a dedicated mobile app. During the pilot phase, theGIA worked primarily with Russian miner Alrosa, which provided the lab withrough for evaluation before the stones entered the market. The GIA then createda file for each diamond before returning them to Alrosa, which then kept arecord of the goods through the cutting process in order to reference thepolished coming from those pieces of rough when the stones returned to the GIAfor grading. The GIA's locations inMumbai and New York, as well as its labs in Gaborone, Botswana, and in Johannesburg, South Africa, are the only ones that have the imaging equipment necessary for the M2M service. TheGIA plans to expand the service to its new labs in Antwerp and Surat, India. The GIA intends to pursue additionalparticipants - including retailers, manufacturers and miners - while collectingfeedback from current ones.