Russian miner Alrosa (MCX:ALRS), the world’s top diamond producer by output, announced that its $6,000 portable Diamond Inspector showed high results in a series of tests performed by independent laboratory UL Verification Services in Boston.
The device is aimed at cracking down on dishonest suppliers that mix lab-made stones with mined diamonds.
Alrosa’s efforts to ensure the authenticity of its diamonds complement rival De Beers’ initiative to create the first industry-wide blockchain platform
In a media statement, Alrosa said the tests were held in July 2019 as a part of the ASSURE Program of the Diamond Producers Association, whose objective is the development and application of unified standard evaluation of the effectiveness of tools and special equipment for diamond identification.
For the Inspector tests, almost 1,400 samples were included among them natural I/II type diamonds, synthetic diamonds grown by using advanced technologies, and non-diamond imitations.
The mechanism, which analyzes both loose and mounted stones in 45 seconds, was able to detect natural diamonds 96.4% of the time, while it accurately identified all the synthetic diamonds and all the non-diamond imitations ran by it.
According to Alrosa, the Inspector was also able to analyze stones in a size range from 0.03 to 10 carats and a color range from D to J, that is, colorless and near-colorless gems.
The device was developed by the diamond miner together with specialists from the Federal State Budgetary Institution Technological Institute for Superhard and Novel Carbon Materials. A joint venture, Diamond Scientific and Technological Center LLC, is in charge of its production and commercialization.